It's a Clash of the Old and New World Thing

Dear America,

It's what happens when pro-choice and pro-life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness meet, the Marco Rubio way --  (allow me to explain, using his own words):

Let me close by saying this. For many of us who were born and raised in this country, including me, it's sometimes easy -- sometimes easy to forget how special America really is. But I was raised by exiles, by people who know what it is like to lose their country, by people who have a unique perspective on why elections matter, or lack thereof, by people who clearly understand how different America is from the rest of the world. And they've taught me this my whole life.

And they taught me, by word and by deed, that what makes America great is not that we have more rich people than anybody else. What makes America great is that there are dreams that are impossible everywhere else but are possible here. And why is that? It's because of the choices that people that came before us made.

Almost every other country in the world chose to have the government run the economy. They chose to allow government to decide which companies survive and fail. They chose to allow government to determine which industries are to be rewarded. But the problem is that when government controls the economy, those who can influence government keep winning, and everybody else just stays the same. And so in those countries, the employee never becomes the employer, the small business can never compete with a big business, and no matter how hard your parents work or how many sacrifices they make, if you weren't born into the right family in those countries, there's only so far you can go.

Now, we've had our excesses here in America, but for the better part of 234 years, Americans have chosen something very different, Americans chose individual liberty instead of the false security of government. Americans chose a limited government that exists to protect our rights, not to grant them.

 Americans chose a free enterprise system designed to provide a quality of opportunity, not compel a quality of results. And that is why this is the only place in the world where you can open up a business in the spare bedroom of your home.

That is why this is the only place in the world where a company that started as an idea drawn out on the back of a cocktail napkin can one day be publicly traded on Wall Street. That's why this is the only country in the world where today's employee is tomorrow's employer. And yet, there are still people in American politics who, for some reason, cling to this belief that America is better off adopting the economic policies of nations whose people who immigrate here from there.  

skipping over a wee bit...

 The final verdict on our generation will be written by Americans who haven't even been born yet. Let us make sure they write that we made the right choice, that in the early years of this century, faced with troubling and uncertain times, there were those who believed that the great American story had run its course. But we did not agree. Fear did not lead us to abandon our liberty. Uncertainty did not lead us to abandon the entrepreneurial spirit. We fought for and held on to those things that made us exceptional. And because we did, there was still one place in the world where the individual was more important than the state. Because we did, there was still at least one place in the world where who you come from does not determine where you get to go.

For the full transcript, go here.

Looking back, America has made poor choices  -- one, by electing Barack Obama, and two, re-electing Barack Obama.

But let's get one thing straight:   America was bamboozled.

Conservative media and popular websites are currently affixed upon a campaign video dating back to Obama's first campaign;  the Fraud-in-Chief was so convincing, and so affirmative in his disgust, way back when...


"The problem is, is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up the national debt from 5 trillion for the first 42 presidents — number 43 added 4 trillion dollars by his lonesome, so that we now have 9 trillion dollars of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic."


And even as a Senator, Obama was pontificating about the recklessness of such a path.  This is from MARCH 2006   (and while I would love to tell you I found it all by myself, I didn't -- my papa passed this little gem off to me in an email weeks ago....it was just waiting for the right moment in time to present itself, taking notes from a master and commander.  xoxoMDC)  so here you go:

"The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure.  It is a sign that the US Government cannot pay its own bills.  It is a sign that we now depend on ongoing financial assistance from foreign countries to finance our Government's reckless fiscal policies.  Increasing America's debt weakens us domestically and internationally.  Leadership means that, 'the buck stops here.'  Instead, Washington is shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren.  America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership.  Americans deserve better."

He said, "America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership."

And then,  as if all that isn't enough to question our choices, here is our president -- just yesterday -- talking to George Stephanopoulos:

"Well- I understand.
Which is why, at some point, I think I take myself out of this. Right now, what I'm trying to do is create an atmosphere where Democrats and Republicans can go ahead, get together, and try to get something done. And, y- you know- I think what's important to recognize is that- we've already cut- $2.5- $2.7 trillion out of the deficit. If the sequester stays in, you've got over $3.5 trillion of deficit reduction already.
Um, say what?   First, what you just said is a lie; you have not shown ANY REAL CUTS in the deficit, and you won't, until real numbers prove it.  But second, what is this :   "If the sequester stays in, you've got over $3.5 trillion of deficit reduction already." 

Um, but whatever, let's keep going...What do you mean, Mr. President?  Have you lost  your mind, I mean, the urge to put the fear of God into all Americans over the sequester cuts, as if NOW, at least on this day, for this audience, you consider these cuts to be a good thing and a complete benefit to you, and maybe all of America?  How can you sit there and count them 'in' when every day for the last two weeks you have demagogued the GOP for letting them happen?

And, so, we don't have an immediate crisis in terms of debt. WHAT?  

In fact, for the next ten years, it's gonna be in a sustainable place. WHAT THE...??  

The question is, can we do it smarter, can we do it better? And- you know, what I'm saying to them is I am prepared to do some tough stuff. BUT YOU'RE NOT prepared to do the tough stuff...you just said "at some point" you will take yourself out of this...(see preceding remarks, you can't miss it)    Neither side's gonna get 100%. That's what the American people are lookin' for. That's what's gonna be good for jobs. That's what's gonna be good for growth."

Oh, and here's a good one:

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: And he said he's challenging you to come forward with a budget that also reaches balance. Are you gonna do that?

 

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: No.

...And then goes into cutting Paul Ryan's balanced budget to pieces... just go to read it here.

But then George picks it up right back up again (hardcore journalism at it's best):

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Balanced by any point?

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: -that he's put before. No. I think that there is a possibility. Look, balancing the budget in part depends on how fast you grow. You remember- you were in the Clinton administration. The reason that you guys balanced it was a combination of some tax hikes, some spending cuts, and the economy grew.

 

And, so- you know, my goal is not to chase- a balanced budget just for the sake of balance. My goal is how do we grow the economy, put people back to work, and if we do that we're gonna be bringin' in more revenue. If we've controlled spending and we've got a smart entitlement package, then potentially what you have is balance. But it's not balance on the backs of, you know, the poor, the elderly, students who need student loans, families who've got disabled kids. That's not the right way to balance-

...Yeah, what's the fun in chasing a balanced budget for the sake of balance....fiscal solvency, a decent credit rating, and presenting a solid economic footing to create the very conditions for a prosperous future for our children and grand children?

But let's not quibble over fives and dimes, right.

How about this line?

"And, so, we don't have an immediate crisis in terms of debt."
Oh, okay.

In 2006, we apparently had an immediate crisis in terms of debt, "shifting the burden of bad choices today onto the backs of our children and grandchildren" and everything.

In 2008, we apparently had an immediate crisis in terms of debt, and called such recklessness "irresponsible" and "unpatriotic."

In 2009, adding one more quote for good measure -- the president actually said this:

"I refuse to leave our children with a debt they cannot repay," he said in remarks opening the one-day summit at the White House. "We cannot and will not sustain deficits like these without end. ... We cannot simply spend as we please."

Of course, in 2009, he was just kicking in the propaganda stream to get his Obamacare into legislation, to become law.  His selling point then -- pledging to cut the 1.3 Trillion dollar deficit IN HALF! before the end of his FIRST term.   As the CNN post explains, "[Obama] identified exploding health-care costs as the chief culprit behind rising federal deficits..."

[But then! went on to create a brand new entitlement program -- one that is set to cripple the health care industry for life; one that forces the very essence and principles of the FREE MARKET to become fully extinguished by virtue of big government and the nanny state; all the while, stealing 710 BILLION dollars from Medicare to fund it and having the CBO re-calculate its total costs and finding out it will cost taxpayers three times as much -- at 2.7 TRILLION dollars!   For the full story, go here.]   ...reminding all of us to beware of fine print...and just maybe we should all beware the Ides of March...just sayin'

Today, we are still running  1.3 trillion dollar deficits; and instead of cutting the deficit in half, instead of adding 4 trillion dollars to our national debt over eight years (or 2 trillion in four), as his predecessor, OBAMA added SIX TRILLION in debt over his first four years (and is currently running on a trajectory to 22 trillion before he finishes his second term).

I guess we could say it's whole new world for President Obama in today's context.   Or, perhaps in the old world --  of 2006, 2008, 2009 -- he was just being a wee bit disingenuous with all of us (just a nice way to say, he fibbed and bamboozled his way into office and through the power of free choice, and American liberty, he got to stay there for four more years).

But make no mistake:   We chose a fraud and a liar in 2008; and no surprise, surprise, once again in 2012.  

2016 awaits, but at this point, it surely can't come fast enough.

The thing is, we don't necessarily have to be led by a tyrant to experience tyranny;  while  history proves time and time again, ideology masquerading as progressive never equates to real progress.

So let's go back to something Rubio said:

"We fought for and held on to those things that made us exceptional. And because we did, there was still one place in the world where the individual was more important than the state. Because we did, there was still at least one place in the world where who you come from does not determine where you get to go."

And "it's all because of the choices that people that came before us made."

amen, Marco, amen.


Make it a GOOD Day, G

Epi-blogue

 

Speaking of progress --  reading headlines over the last couple of days makes me wonder what century we have dropped into:  Introducing Francis,  the first pope from the "New World."   wow.  Does the queen know about it yet?

And this one...leftover from yesterday, or the day before...believe it to be a combination of the pony express having sequester delays and me toiling in the back forty collecting beans, so forgive me if it's old news to you:  "Obama couldn't eat at Hill meeting without food taster."  alrighty then,  henry the eighth I am, I am.   If every Senator in the room was eating the lobster salad with blueberry pie  -- me thinks it was okay.  But what's with that, anyway?  LOBSTER?   The White House cancels WHITE HOUSE tours, cuts military tuition assistance (see here)  and all things that instantly make our skin crawl with disdain on just the pettiness factor alone, but LOBSTER?    Catered lunches, dinner's out, fresh flowers, private jets, should all be slashed -- at least in half, before the end of the day.

And yet NO WHITE HOUSE STAFF has been adversely affected by the sequester, as yet.  Can you just imagine having a 711 MILLION dollar annual budget for your company?  Think about it.  Dream about it until I see you again...

 I can't wait to talk about our new pope! 

It's 44 BILLION, not 85 -- it's lies, not truth -- it's fear, not faith -- and it's a pretty big THING

Dear America,

so this little article from CNS News explains everything in a nutshell; actually, the shell is overflowing, but what's the big f&#*ing deal about that, right Joe?  (aw, remember that day?) 

my work is done.

have a nice day.

but seriously, haven't we heard enough already?

Do we not possess all the information we need to know?   Or how about this angle -- everything we ever needed to know we learned in kindergarten; how's that for bringing it down to a level of intelligence everyone can relate?

THIS Administration added 253.5 BILLION dollars to our national debt just in the month of February.  

THIS Administration buoys the market on borrowed time to the tune of 85 billion dollars a month. 

THIS Administration passed the Sandy Hurricane "Aid" bill about a month ago, pledging 51 billion dollars in "aid" to the region -- not to mention a few unmentionable pork projects, added in  for good measure [real aid amounted to under 10 B's].

Or, how about this --

if the federal government didn't go around spending the people's money all willy-nilly, we wouldn't even be in the middle of this sequester insanity; if the federal government only spent according to what they bring in -- reflective of legislating within a balanced budget --  how truly wonderful a world would that be?

But let's take a look back at that story from CNS News once more.  It points out that only 44 billion of sequester cuts are set to kick in for THIS fiscal year.  How is it that everyone in the mainstream media, and even the talking heads of THIS Administration, continue to throw around the 85 billion dollar number?    Wouldn't that number have absolutely nothing to do with the truth?  Wouldn't that number just be another lie?

Ah but don't try using that logic with Janet Napolitano; the walls are crashing in, security lines are unimaginable, and if you take your frustrations out on the poor helpless TSA, it's not going to help any of us get from here to there.

oh really Janet?

Hey, does anyone remember what happened the last time the stock market hit an all-time high?  [just food for thought...just a nut to save for later in the apples of our cheeks...or not]

The thing is, there seems to be a whole lot of manipulation going around.  Whether good, bad or indifferent, THIS Administration is arranging all the itty-bitty, nitty-gritty details of how we feel, and more important, how we respond, as it pertains to the collective body.  THIS Administration is master-minding movement, transformation, fundamental change from the roots.   And it's been a long time coming, actually.

Developing the fear factor is where it always begins, which reminds me of a story shared by Joel Osteen... and paraphrasing now --

It begins with a guy who works in some kind of shipping facility, or something, and one day he's inside a refrigerated trailer, packing and stacking, when he realizes he's alone and locked in for the night.  Long story short, everyone else has gone home and he begins to feed off the fear of being in this cold, dark environment, totally cut off from all communication with the world.  After awhile, he finds a piece of cardboard and scribbles out something like, "it's cold...not sure gonna make it..."

Well, the next morning the crew finds him.  Sure enough, he didn't make it.  He was discovered huddled in the corner under the cardboard.

But lo and behold -- the refrigeration of this trailer was not on.  It was never on.  The temperature throughout the night was never cooler than 61 degrees.  But this guy died anyway.  His thoughts were so powerful, they drove him right into his own death.

DO you think for one minute THIS Administration doesn't know what it's doing?   Obama's mentor -- Saul Alinsky --  was a master at weaving psychology, public policy, politics, propaganda, and community organizing all together to move the collective in order to control the collective.   Thoughts are things to be reckoned with; thoughts are things and can be used for political advantage and create radical change.   THIS is the kind of stuff Obama was reared and raised; this is precisely how Obama thinks, too.


But how about we close for the day on a couple of Osteen's points of light -- "fear presents itself much bigger than it really is"  and "if you stay in faith, God will deliver us from evil."

Think independently. Never assume, don't believe everything you hear, and live in truth (and certainly not within the confines of what THIS Administration tells you to think, feel, and believe).

It's not 85 billion in sequester cuts this year, it's 44 billion.  But what is 44 billion when we borrow 4 billion dollars by the end of every day?     The day we will be able to begin to save a few nuts and berries for a rainy day is 17 trillion dollars away (of course, not counting the unfunded liabilities).

Make it a Good Day, G

Hey remember when Obama said he would go "line by line" to make cuts in the budget; remember when Obama called Bush "unpatriotic" for raising the debt to 9 trillion dollars?  At the rate this president is going, AMERICA will be 22 Trillion in debt by the end of Obama's second term.

It's About Political Constitutions on Accident and Force Thing

Dear America,

"It has been frequently remarked

that it seems to have been reserved

to the people of this country, by their conduct and example,

to decide the important question,

whether societies of men 

are really capable or not

of establishing good government

from reflection and choice, or whether

they are forever destined to depend

for their political constitutions

on accident and force."

Alexander Hamilton

 

big lies are circling, telling, revealing themselves in the light of a new day. 

Returning to the days leading up to the last election, The Heritage Foundation unveiled and clarified a seriously huge number projected to be taken out of Medicare in order to pay for Obamacare.

716 BILLION DOLLARS

GO HERE, and you can see for yourself; of course, ramifications of this action are even bigger.  As Heritage lays it all out, they say this: "Obamacare raids Medicare to pay for other new programs.."

"In Obamacare, the payment cuts are across-the-board cuts (modifications of Medicare’s complex payment formulas) made throughout the bulk of the Medicare program. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), these cuts will decrease Medicare spending by an estimated $716 billion between 2013 and 2022."

yadi yada yada..

 

"The Medicare program today is in a desperate situation. The hospital insurance trust fund that finances Part A of Medicare is projected by the Medicare trustees to be bankrupt by 2024. Worse, over the long term, the Administration and Congress have made $37 trillion worth of benefit promises to future seniors that they cannot keep—there simply won’t be funding for them. Despite these enormous issues, Obamacare cuts the program instead of reforming it to last for future generations."

Oh wait...that was in October 2012, let's go back to September of 2012...and turn to an article titled, "Obama's Robbery of Medicare to Fund Obamacare, in one chart" featured in the National Review Online...go here.    Hey, and they even used the same CBO chart and everything.

Here's how "The Corner" began:

"Both Governor Romney and Congressman Ryan attacked the president for allegedly robbing Medicare of $716 billion,” former president William Jefferson Clinton told the Democratic National Convention on September 5. “Here’s what really happened. There were no cuts to benefits. None . . . President Obama and the Democrats didn’t weaken Medicare. They strengthened it."

If Clinton were under oath in Charlotte, this would be called perjury."

wow.  but that's nothing new, right? [badump ba]


But let's speed things up and kick in a more current thought of the 716 billion dollar fully federally authorized embezzlement and go to another National Review Online article from John Fund, February 15, 2013:

"But the Obama administration doesn’t want to talk about its own devastating cuts in Medicare. On Friday, February 15, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced $716 billion in cuts over the next ten years. Instead of being put toward the debt, most of the money will go toward a new entitlement: Obamacare’s vast expansion of coverage for the uninsured."

Oh but how have we all missed this?  Just where oh where is the mainstream media -- considering a third of our spending is borrowed, in government greenbacks, we might as well be talking a trillion bucks -- and they have nothing to say?

That's telling.

Did you know there are plenty of programs exempt from the sequester?  About 149 to be exact [or as Mark Levin would put it, 80% of the federal budget...just go to show notes from 2/28 here ) -- beginning with some big ones like Medicaid, Social Security, Medicare payments to states for qualified individual premiums (approx. 2% of the Medicare budget is NOT exempt -- BUT who really cares, right, given it's already been raped and pillaged), food stamps, veterans affairs programs, military personnel funding...oh and let us not leave out the all-important salaries and benefits for our honorable congress and president.   For a full list, painfully broken down line by line, go to the Office of Management and Budget, here, OR for a prettier version of much of the same thing, go here (it's some kind of "virtual learning community"...). 

Medicare must feel like a caged animal slated for slaughter; it's behind bars circling the boundaries, eyes bulging out of it's head, shifting from left to right...it's only a matter of time.

The Investor's Business Daily online has a super good piece on "Obama's Sequester Math..."   It has the potential of being far more entertaining to read -- if only it wasn't based on Obama's sequester spin; but telling is as telling does, we can thank our lucky stars somebody has the guts to tell it like it is and more important, spell out the ridiculousness of this president's plan. 

In it's big finish, we get this from IBD:

"As a result, instead of $1.2 trillion in spending cuts called for by the sequester over the next decade, Obama would add more than $1 trillion in revenues, while cutting outlays only about $600 billion. And much of those aren't real cuts, but tiny reductions in projected spending growth over the next decade.

And in the end, his plan, such as it is, will do nothing to forestall the nation's oncoming debt crisis."

And like the post started out, the president's plan "isn't a plan at all, just a list of numbers with little to back it up.   There are no details, for example, about the $200 billion in cuts to defense and domestic discretionary programs, other than that Obama wants them split evenly."  Not to mention the guy is lying through his teeth to the American people (but that's nothing new, too).

This is all absolutely nuts.

It's hard to believe we are even spending the time nit-picking the itty bitty details at all.
We're merely discussing 2.4 percent of the total federal budget!   If this congress and president cannot figure out how to cut this miniscule amount from the budget, what chance do we have at all in settling the long term liabilities with regards to the unfunded entitlement programs?   What chance do we have in keeping this congress from increasing our debt limit, yet again?   What chance do we have in even stopping the growth of government, if ever?

As debonair as this president is -- a presidency cannot stand on charisma alone; while ridicule, is a tactic for sissies; and all that fear mongering, a method that's usually reserved for demagogues, dictators, or kings.   Good thing propaganda has a way of going around and coming around.   In this age of the internet reformation, sooner or later, everything gets unveiled, revealed and brought to light.   There are no secrets, while downright lies come back to bite, with a vengeance.

The thing is -- is it all too late and forty-six cents on a dollar short?  
Does America have a fighting chance to finally tell herself the truth, the whole truth, and follow through with honest to goodness real solutions to fix a century of wrongs?  

Where is the courage? 

"I always consider

the settlement of America

 with reverence and wonder,

 as the opening of a grand scene and design

in Providence

for the illumination of the ignorant,

and the emancipation

of the slavish part of mankind

all over the earth." 

John Adams

that was then, this is now...  feel like having myself a good cry.

Make it a Good Day, G

 

It's a Meeting of the Minds, Madness, and Mayhem Thing, refreshments served

Dear America,

okay Panetta, how about we just say, "come and get us" -- maybe even throw out the white flag and cry "'uncle", too?  Due to the sequester...military readiness is in double time jeopardy.

Responding to all the dust stirring up, Bob Woodward made these remarks on MSNBC:

"Can you imagine Ronald Reagan sitting there and saying, 'Oh, by the way, I can't do this because of some budget document?'" Woodward said on MSNBC. 

"Or George W. Bush saying, 'You know, I'm not going to invade Iraq because I can't get the aircraft carriers I need?'" Or even Bill Clinton saying, 'You know, I'm not going to attack Saddam Hussein's intelligence headquarters,' ... because of some budget document?"

...and to continue reading full story, go to the Business Insider,  here.

G note:  We are marching double time today, so hydrate and try to keep up...

Day after day -- the perception that the world is going to come to an end with the sequester is a totally manufactured, heavy artillery, draconian and dramatic drone dropping of propaganda, only propped up by virtue of a sleazy, ignorant, sheepish, gutless, liberal- biased media base that seems dead set on supporting this "progressive" radical in office no matter what; especially considering that the truth is, this President has the explicit authority to decide where the cuts come from.

But that's just getting ahead of ourselves.

Here are the facts -- via Bob Woodward -- from his column in The Washington Post. [you have to read it, for I have no time to bring you up to speed]

But just in case you are still concerned, here's Obama, from November 2011:

"Already, some in Congress

are trying to undo these automatic spending cuts.

My message to them is simple:

No.

I will veto

 any effort

to get rid

of those automatic spending cuts

 – domestic and defense spending.

There will be no easy off-ramps on this one."

...and to continue reading this full story,  go to The National Review, here.

That's pretty clear, isn't it. "There will be no easy off-ramps on this one."

"NO."

"I will veto

any effort

to get rid

of those automatic spending cuts

-- domestic and defense spending."

Ah hem, Mr. President...careful there....you just might regret saying that...

But let's get back to Bob.

Um,  you're gonna regret that...the nerve of you...saying something not-so-flattering of this White House and giving the impression that Obama is displaying " a kind of madness I haven't seen in a long time."   Seriously?  The real question is, are you daft, buddy boy bob?  You do know who you're dealing with, right?

And right on cue, let's get back to the scoop on CNN -- with Woodward and Blitzer.  Here's the full story and the video...can't say I never do anything for you.

And then -- with some digging -- look what I found...

It's all about the background conversation between Bob and Gene Sperling, economic advisor to the president, and this quote is courtesy of Fox Nation and Politico's Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei...

From Gene to Bob, in an email:

"But I do truly believe you should rethink your comment about saying saying that Potus asking for revenues is moving the goal post. I know you may not believe this, but as a friend, I think you will regret staking out that claim. The idea that the sequester was to force both sides to go back to try at a big or grand barain with a mix of entitlements and revenues (even if there were serious disagreements on composition) was part of the DNA of the thing from the start. It was an accepted part of the understanding — from the start."

BUT --

"...My apologies again for raising my voice on the call with you. Feel bad about that and truly apologize."

For more, go here.  [by the way, typos not mine]

But Oh-oh say can  G  see  -- for once again this administration is caught in the middle of making disingenuous agreements with the opposition....as part of the genuine and cooperative efforts of both sides to strike a deal in order to move forward --  when in fact, this congress was dealing with a guy who has no intention of keeping his word.  As the seasons turn, turn, turn -- this president would manipulate the system over time and eventually get back to re-mitigating tax hikes all over again, and all while demagoging the republicans.   Which looks an awful lot like "moving the goal post."  But thank you, Gene, for putting the DNA of the agreement that was never really an agreement in writing for us.  But I digress.

FOR MORE on the "republican sequester setup" -- read Alexander's post from The Patriot Post, here (don't hate; I told you to hydrate).

How can this president continue to get away with this stuff?

Last I heard, "NO" means no.

So make no mistake -- this president lied to himself, congress, and more importantly, to the American people when he said, "I will veto any effort to get rid of the automatic spending cuts [aka the sequester]  --- domestic and defense spending."

But to top it all off, what is on the agenda today for this president?

Courtesy of Lynn Sweet, one of the president's favorite home town criers --

10:00AM In-Town Pool Call Time

11:15AM THE PRESIDENT and THE VICE PRESIDENT

receive the Presidential Daily Briefing

Oval Office

Closed Press

12:40PM THE PRESIDENT and THE VICE PRESIDENT

 meet for lunch

Private Dining Room

Closed Press

Briefing Schedule

12:30PM Press Briefing

by Press Secretary Jay Carney

wow.

considering everything will be coming to a screeching halt as of zero dark hundred tomorrow, something doesn't seem quite right....am I missing something?

By the way, today's lunch: crow, with cake following.  yum.

Make it a Good Day, G

Celebrating 600 blogs today!

But you know, if the sequester happens,

if famine takes over,

if the stars begin to fall from the sky,

if bombs start bursting in air,

this just may be my last.

Oh well.

good times...good times.

 

It's a God Save the Bean Counters Thing

Dear America,

 the thing is -- if you are one of the lucky ones who has a job, you are being paid under the parameters of this year's budget.

The Sequester shaves off future funds -- over a decade -- cutting into the future increases built into the budget, based upon the current trajectory of revenue and expenditures.   And as we have discussed ad infinitum, it's not much at that.  It's like cutting one penny from every dollar.

WE ARE STILL GROWING GOVERNMENT.

Based upon what we know now, government is still set to expand, not contract; government is still set to grow our debt by trillions of dollars over the next ten years even with the implementation of this sequester.

WE ARE STILL GROWING GOVERNMENT.

Based upon what we know now, government is still ignoring the unfunded liabilities totaling over 80 trillion dollars. 

WE ARE STILL GROWING GOVERNMENT.

Based upon what we know now, the brand new health care entitlement program -- generally referred to as Obamacare -- is set to not only turn our stellar health care system on it's ear, it will out-maneuver and bankrupt an entire industry...health insurance (and anything remotely related to it)...and one day in the not too distant future, it will be recognized as the straw that broke the camel's back [and that would be America's].

WE ARE STILL GROWING GOVERNMENT.

Based upon what we know now, the government should cut spending, indeed, and reverting back to the last budget before the stimulus took into effect.  And to do that we would have to go back like, what, four years  or something?   The stimulus funds -- intended for a one-time expenditure -- were counted in and never taken out of the baseline budgets.  

WE ARE STILL GROWING GOVERNMENT.

Based upon what we know now, the government grows every department anywhere from 3 to 10 percent each and every year!    Does your family spending increase every year like that, even without an increase in revenue?  And how long could you really keep that up (presumably, on credit) if you did?

WE ARE STILL GROWING GOVERNMENT.

Based upon what we know now, remember where some of those stimulus funds went to?  Let me remind you -- to crazy stupid grants and studies and crapshoot business propositions...by the billions.

WE ARE STILL GROWING GOVERNMENT.

Based upon what we know now, we are growing -- exponentially -- in dependency upon government; for this is the end result this government wants to create.   Self-reliance is dwindling, exponentially; the fundamentals of independence, free enterprise, duty, responsibility, accountability, hard work, virtue, morality, self-discipline, self-control, checks and balances is evolving into a twisted foreign policy, of sorts.

WE ARE STILL GROWING GOVERNMENT.

Based upon what we know now, we are growing victims, instead of stalwart citizens.

From Benjamin Franklin, plucked from the pages of The 5000 Year Leap:

"There is scarce a king in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of Pharaoh -- get first all the people's money, then all their lands, and then make them and their children servants forever.  It will be said that we do not propose to establish kings.  I know it.  But there is a natural inclination in mankind to kingly government.   It sometimes relieves them from aristocratic domination.  They had rather have one tyrant than 500.  It gives more of the appearance of equality among citizens; and that they like.  I am apprehensive, therefore -- perhaps too apprehensive -- that the government of these states may in future times end in a monarchy.  But this catastrophe, I think, may be long delayed, if in our proposed system we do not sow the seeds of contention, faction, and tumult, by making our posts of honor places of profit.  If we do, I fear that, though we employ at first a number and not a single person, the number will in time be set aside; it will only nourish the fetus of a king (as the honorable gentleman from Virginia very aptly expressed it), and a king will the sooner be set over us."

WE ARE STILL GROWING GOVERNMENT.

We may not have a "king" exactly; what we have is a political power, the power elite -- and this power encompasses the political persuasions and ideologies of both sides of the aisle, seemingly transferable as if through osmosis, or something; overnight, opinions and platforms change, flip, turned totally upside down, opposites somehow attract, as parties meld into one, e pluribus Unum. Hence, the massive government we have today.   It's so big that we, the people, have no idea what's in it (sound familiar?).   It's all part of the control of the people, the money, the property, the pursuit of happiness from one generation to the next.

Oh Benny -- this future unimaginable -- the contention, these factions, tumult, turning our "posts of honor" into "places of profit" -- is here.

God save the bean counters.

Make it a Good Day, G

speaking of the lucky ones with jobs...here's a good story.  This is how America works in real life.  It's about having less reliance on government, and more reliance on ourselves and the kindness of strangers...until they're our boss.  Read all about it here.  Simply beautiful...happy Tuesday.

It's Time to Kick the Tires Not the Can Thing

Dear America,

good day.
So this girl is in the midst of reading a book I normally wouldn't give a second glance; it's called, The Things They Carried, by Tim O'Brien.  It's a genuine, heart-wrenchingly raw, look back at a time that seemingly stood still for him, the time of the Vietnam War when he was a soldier. 

Early on, he makes the following realization:

"But the thing about remembering is that you don't forget.  You take your material where you find it, which is in your life, at the intersection of past and present.  The memory-traffic feeds into a rotary up on your head, where it goes in circles for a while, then pretty soon imagination flows in and the traffic merges and shoots off down a thousand different streets.  As a writer, all you can do is pick a street and go for a ride, putting things down as they come to you.  That's the real obsession.  All the stories."

As 'just a girl' who just so happens to relate to this process -- to "pick a street and go for a ride" each and every day (give or take a day or two) -- O'Brien puts into simple words the level of congestion, everyday traffic, we all bring into the mix of living in community with one another.  We all have life experiences, a memory -- or too many to count; we all walk in reflection of this stuff, these things, all our lives.  Sometimes it all becomes a weight so great, it spills out.  Constructively, creatively, violently, spontaneously, cognitively  -- we let the rubber meet the road and it all comes raging up from deep inside us.

For "the thing about remembering is that you don't forget."

 Me thinks that the remembering isn't so bad at all, really, especially when placed into the context of the things we deliberately, or unintentionally, choose to forget.   What comes to mind are things like the Great Depression -- or -- the corruption and destruction of a whole society under the power of tyranny --  or -- how about the slow, nudging process of utter evil -- masterminded by crazy, narcissistic, sadistic madmen.   How could we ever forget what has happened around the world under Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Castro, Mao, Ayatollah Khomeini, Gaddafi, Idi Amin Dada,  Kim Jung IL...Ho Chi Minh?

How is it possible that any of these bad seeds of humanity had any followers, comrades, developing armies of men, bowing in allegiance to their cause?

And then I quickly come to attention of this day -- this country -- these things past and present weaving in and out of my mind, violently careening through the curves of the hills and valleys....atten-hut!

What are we doing to ourselves?  Is anyone asking intelligent questions anymore? Or is this game of kicking the can down the road until the day we all die together in puff of smoke, mirrors, lies and propaganda fun for you?

As I remember a winning tactic of Saul Alinsky --  certainly one that has been ingrained into the consciousness of a young Barack Obama at an age when he was merely an up and coming community organizer, awaiting his time of power to come -- "pick a target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it."  [and sure, this girl has been down this road with you before, shoot me]

But the thing is, conservatives in America keep getting riddled with tactics dating back hundreds of years -- the polarizing of the opposition, the compromising of our values, the methodical shape shifting of our communities -- even entire nations -- just by the use of words, making impressions upon us, respective of the laws of perception and totally aware of our natural human response.  This is how it begins; this is how we get to an intersection of Nazis killing Jews by the millions.

This president of ours is using dangerous, highly flammable, tactics at his every turn and whim; while this lame-brain media of ours just sits back and regurgitates his brilliance and intelligence and courage as if they have forgotten everything history has taught us.

We cannot afford to play economic roulette.

We cannot justify burying every value and principle that has made this country truly remarkable into the ground, without a memory living on and haunting us from this generation on into the next, and the next, and so on, begging us to ask a simple question: just where did we go wrong?

This president was given his tax hikes in late December, per his power to persuade and with congress under the gun for an end of the year deal -- now it's time for the spending cuts  (just as the compromise between political parties dictated).  All is fair in love and war, and not only that -- fair is fair.

If anything, these "cuts" are not nearly enough  (considering also, it's merely a "cut" in future government growth...thank you Rand Paul, CNN, and RealClearPolitics.  These cuts just slow the growth of government down from going 100 miles an hour to maybe 80; but in a school zone, that is about 55/mph too fast).

This 85 B's is called a starting place; the finish line is miles and miles and miles down the road.  And it's gonna be a rough ride from here on out, considering we have already totaled the brand spanking new hybrid car that wasn't even paid for yet.

You want some real time history, some instant message perspective -- while driving,  no less -- added to the scenery today?  How about this comparison to how this government SPENDS 85 BILLION DOLLARS a MONTH...and the kicker, it's created out of thin air, too.   [which isn't so funny when we borrow forty six cents on every dollar, details, schmeetails, nothing to see here, no sir ree bob]  ...........

......Oh no...DO NOT STOP now, we're just getting started.   This is not a drill!   GO HERE NOW.

Who is living a lie now?   And everybody is all excited about the market hitting five year highs...yeah, okay...

Do you get it now -- or no, not really?  Or, do you happen to like being a drone for this idiotic administration and the totally harmless madman behind the wheel?

I am done.  Getting off at the nearest exit for a rest.

Make it a Good Day, G

 

It's a Look, Seek, Find It Yourself Kind of Day Thing

Dear America,

so we have to talk about a few too many things today...what else is new?

But first, let's pause for a commercial from my fine state of California -- who came up with this?

California...

find yourself here.

really?
Do we really have to be a magnet for the lost, forlorn, the unemployed and insecure?

Here's another thought -- if the truth sets us free, what do flat out lies do to us?

And another -- how can this Propagandist-in-Chief sleep at night?

And another -- will G be able to keep this up and end every sentence with a question?

Yesterday was simply amazing, wasn't it?

The full text can be reviewed here; however, allow me to hit some of the highlights:

"Now, if Congress allows this meat-cleaver approach to take place, it will jeopardize our military readiness; it will eviscerate job-creating investments in education and energy and medical research. It won't consider whether we're cutting some bloated program that has outlived its usefulness, or a vital service that Americans depend on every single day. It doesn't make those distinctions."

"Emergency responders like the ones who are here today -- their ability to help communities respond to and recover from disasters will be degraded. Border Patrol agents will see their hours reduced. FBI agents will be furloughed. Federal prosecutors will have to close cases and let criminals go. Air traffic controllers and airport security will see cutbacks, which means more delays at airports across the country. Thousands of teachers and educators will be laid off. Tens of thousands of parents will have to scramble to find childcare for their kids. Hundreds of thousands of Americans will lose access to primary care and preventive care like flu vaccinations and cancer screenings."

LIES.  LIES.  LIES. LIES.  But keep on keepin' on chicken little.  Perhaps when all these people have lost their purpose in life they can all flock to California and smoke pot, liberally dispersed from our medical marijuana outlets,  and find themselves all over again.

Leadership decides what gets cut; but nice touch with throwing everything you can think of into the mix, including that last thought there about "[losing] access to primary care and preventive care like flu vaccinations and cancer screenings."   Didn't your 2.7 trillion dollar Obamacare law just fix all that?

And what about what you said in November of 2011?  Didn't you "vow" to veto any bill that would undo the sequester spending cuts?   Now that's a good question.    And a big shout out goes out to "sweetness and light" for a little help with supplying a honey of a video backup.

 But there he is -- standing with a backdrop of "first responders" -- backtracking on a pledge...

"So these cuts are not smart. They are not fair. They will hurt our economy. They will add hundreds of thousands of Americans to the unemployment rolls. This is not an abstraction -- people will lose their jobs. The unemployment rate might tick up again."

Now, we have talked about this 85 billion dollars in cuts already; we poked a little fun with the idea that if they are so draconian, why are we committed to doing them at all? 

But seriously -- 85 billion?    That is like a drop in the bucket when we are running over a trillion dollars in deficits each year, no?   The pencil pushers have already  figured out, it's less than two percent of the budget.   And really now, wouldn't leadership -- department heads, czars, the president -- make the final call?   Who's really in charge here?  DO we really have to start with the emergency responders, or do you think we might be able to cut other people, places, and things first?

Clearly, yesterday's performance was all about the Radical-in-Chief being the first responder of  demagoguery.  His plan is to use this sequester battle to bury the GOP into the ground, even while he has no intention of making cuts to anything; he wants America to go down, in flames, if possible.    This is what he has dreamed of all his life.  [Of course, most Americans see him as the outsider and savior in chief, not the destroyer; fool me once, shame on you -- fool me twice, shame on me...but I digress]

In other words, make way for ducklings which leads to fundamental transformation.  that was easy.

The thing is people --  We, the people, are no longer free people.

WE have already lost our liberty.  Our freedom and liberty died when we began to accrue serious debt, debt we will be unable to pay back in our lifetime, in our children's lifetime, in many lifetimes to come.   Freedom goes right out of the equation when we are chained to a debt so great, it is inconceivable and unimaginable to see the way back.

As a people we have reached our limits -- emotionally and intellectually.   We are seeing, witnessing in the everyday, the unintended consequences of our lack of attention to keeping our word, keeping our faith, keeping our solvency, keeping our hearts and minds healthy and vibrant and good (without the use of questionable prescription or recreational drugs).  

WE are a mess. 

WE are lost.

WE need to be found (not sure California is the place to start...just sayin'.  and I live here, so I should know, right).

I have to end with something funny or else I may go mad before the clock strikes ten...

Remember that moment in Legally Blonde, when Elle goes off on her argument something like this:

'exercise gives you endorphins, 

endorphins make you happy,

and happy people

just don't shoot their husbands.'

just give me a courtesy laugh and we can all go on with our day...but no lie, there's a pretty good message in there somewhere.  look, seek, find it yourself.

Make it a Good Day, G