I’ve come to understand that whenever Obama promises something, it is time to expect the opposite. Nowhere is that more apparent than when it comes to fiscal responsibility. This budget does not deliver whatsoever when it comes to that. I knew it was a joke when he talked about slashing the deficit in half in four years. That’s unacceptable. It needs to be balanced. Period. This is going in the opposite direction.

From the AP –  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090226/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_budget

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama is sending Congress a “hard choices” budget that would boost taxes on the wealthy and curtail Medicare payments to insurance companies and hospitals to make way for a $634 billion down payment on universal health care.

Obama’s first budget, which will top $3 trillion, predicts the deficit for this year will soar to a whopping $1.75 trillion, according to administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity before the public unveiling of the budget Thursday. The huge deficit reflects the massive spending being undertaken to battle a severe recession and the worst financial crisis in seven decades.

As part of the effort to end the financial crisis, the administration will propose boosting the deficit by an additional $250 billion this year, enough to support as much as $750 billion in increased spending under the government’s financial rescue program. That would more than double the $700 billion bailout effort passed by Congress last October.

How many bailouts does this make now? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is going on here? At least 2 trillion dollars have gone to the banks that screwed things up in the first place. They get rewarded for this junk. It also sounds as this new bailout is just a placeholder for yet another bailout.

There’s also tax increases

The $634 billion down payment on expanding health care coverage would come from a $318 billion increase over 10 years in taxes on the wealthy, defined as couples making more than $250,000 per year and individuals making more than $200,000. The tax increase would occur by reducing the benefit the wealthy get on tax deductions. As one example, taxpayers in the current top tax bracket of 35 percent would see their tax deduction for every $1 given to charity drop from 35 cents to 28 cents.

The other half of the down payment on Obama’s drive toward universal health care — $318 billion — would come from curtailing payments to hospitals and insurance companies under Medicare and drug payments under Medicaid.

The first one sucks, the second gets my guard up even more. I need more information to analyze what is meant by “curtailing payments,” but I don’t trust it, that’s for sure.

The cost of the stimulus bill and the increased bailout support would push the deficit for this year to $1.75 trillion, nearly four times last year’s record $455 billion and a percentage of the economy — just over 12 percent — not seen since World War II. The deficit is expected to remain around $1 trillion for the next two years before starting to decline to $533 billion in 2013, according to budget projections.

I think we all agree that Bush was not a fiscally responsible president. Obama exceeds Bush’s fiscal mismanagement in spades. A 1/2 trillion dollar deficit is ridiciulous. $1.75 trillion is insane – and that is in addition to the “govenmental stimulation” package that was passed, along with the bailouts that the tag team of Bush and Obama both gave to us.

Then there is this:

The plan also contains a contentious proposal to raise hundreds of billions of dollars by auctioning off permits to exceed carbon emissions caps, which Obama wants to impose on users of fossil fuels to address global warming.

Are you f’ing kidding me? After this winter, we can use some global warming.

The last Bush budget sucked. This budget goes beyond sucking. It sucks on the level of former Lions GM Matt Millen. We have a tax increase for another bailout. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expected different results. The first bailout did not work. The newest bailout will not work and have the same effect as the old one. The tax increase irks me, but the bailout is what angers me the most.

However, saying “No” is not enough. There needs to be a counter budget that needs to be proposed and marketed. With the current membership in the screwed up organization known as Congress, it won’t pass. However, it needs to be pushed into the minds of the public. The conservative wing of the GOP (Hensarling, Pence) need to go out and propose a balanced budget like they did in 2006. Unlike 2006, the GOP needs to embrace that budget and push that for a vote. If Pelosi fails (as she probably will) to allow a vote, run on that.

We’re going from the bad to the worse, and it’s time for this to be stopped.

We now have an economic team to screw the country like they screwed Michigan. Of all the individuals that could be picked to Obama’s economic team, we have this:

From the Detroit Free Press

WASHINGTON — Gov. Jennifer Granholm and former U.S. Rep. David Bonior will serve on a panel of financial luminaries and corporate experts advising President-elect Barack Obama on the nation’s hard-bitten economy, ensuring Michigan, its troubled auto industry and labor has a seat at the table.

That’s right. The Matt Millen of Governors (Former Lions GM) Jennifer Granholm.
That’s about as smart as appointing Ted Nugent to PETA’s board of directors. What the hell was he thinking? Granholm’s legacy on the economy are service tax increases, business tax increase, sin taxes, income taxes, tax shifts, fee increases, surcharges, unemployment, people leaving the state, debt, big government regulation, a push for a gas tax, pork projects for a $116 million dollar state police building, and government picking winners and losers.

This country and state voted for Obama, so don’t complain to me. It’s time for you to assume the position! “Thank you sir, may I have another!”

As the Motorhead classic song Dogs goes

Here we are in the years
The blood, the sweat, the tears
Have made us bondage slaves
In a world that we never made,
The politicians lick our bones,
The tacticians, hearts of stone
They turn us against our brothers
Make us fight and kill each other
Locked in lust we put our trust in dogs

Here we are again,
The dead still look the same
Who cares they’re soon forgotten
Nobody gonna miss a corpse that’s rotten
Your fathers, mothers, daughters, sons
Have been taken by the chosen ones
But don’t you forget you made the choice,
You made your mark, you raised your voice,
They’re all the same, you’re all to blame
You’re dogs!

Yes, I blame the voters. They’re dogs.

Going into yesterday, I told those that asked me that I gave McCain a 40% shot to win. I thought he had a shot at Pennsylvania. If he didn’t win there, he had to run the table. I didn’t think that could be done. My realistic odds were closer to 30% than 40%. Part of that was the McCain campaign’s doing. Most of it was due to Congress, Bush, and Washington screwing up. This was not that hard to see coming. I’m not going to post anything close to the election that would decrease turnout on the right.

Obama’s strategy was largely built on the 2000 Bush message and 2004 Bush organization with a few tweaks. Bush won largely thanks to the classic outsider message and by winning the ground game. Bush’s people had a tin ear when it came to policy related issues, but they are ace organizers, and the difference was striking between 08 and 04. As far as Obama’s campaign organization, Obama used to organize for a living. He was one of ACORN’s best people. Seeing 2000 and 2004, the plan was all laid out for him and Axelrod. Obama expanded on the 2000 Bush strategy with with the financial jaggernault, a media in the tank for him, gullible voters and capitalizing on blunders. The one good thing I can say is that anytime one party gets total control of government, they eventually screw up badly. The Democrats will screw up badly, eventually. Chicago style Daley Machine Politics is coming to America. The bad part is that I’m going to get screwed as well as those who voted for them. Until then, protect your wallet, buy some more guns and ammo before the new bans (as soon as a high profile shooting takes place – it will nickle and dime us out), get out of the market before the capital gain increases and switch to other investments. They are going to do for this country what Granholm is doing here. Don’t bitch to me about it if you voted for him. He’s your president, not mine.

However the title of this isn’t about how bad of a president Obama is going to be. It’s titled Self-destructed – from 06 to today, and the way to climb back. I’ve always been a believer in taking care of our own house first. You don’t beat even an empty suit with nothing. The worst aspect of the last few years in Congress is that the few real alternatives and the piss poor communication (and some cases, stepping on) of any alternatives that did exist. That was the biggest problem of the Bush administration and Congressional leadership.

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A lot of hype and claims are being made about Proposal 2. I was leaning against when I saw the ballot language, and I’m staunchly against this now after I real the actual language. You’ll find a lot of sites and reasons, scientific and otherwise attacking this proposal, but I’m going to stick with something I’m more familiar with. Language.

Here is the ballot summary language of Proposal 2. Unedited and verbatum. This is what you see on the ballot.

Proposal 2:

A PROPOSAL TO AMEND THE STATE CONSTITUTION TO ADDRESS HUMAN EMBRYO AND HUMAN EMBRYONIC STEM CELL RESEARCH IN MICHIGAN

The proposed constitutional amendment would
- Expand use of human embryos for any research permitted under federal law subject to the following limits: the embryos –
* are created for fertillity treatment purposes;
* are not suitable for impantation or are in excess of climical needs;
* would be discarded unless used for research;
* were donated by the person seeking fertillity treatment.

- Provide that stem cells cannot be taken from human embryos more than 14 days after cell division begins.

- Prohibit any person from selling or purchasing human embryos for stem cell research.

- Prohibit state and local laws that prevent, restrict, or discourage stem cell research, future therapies, and cures.

Should this proposal be adopted?

Yes___

No____

See anything wrong with how this is written? I’ll have to look up more precedents, but I have several concerns. I’ll break down this, line by line. I assume attorneys wrote this, and every word there is for a reason.

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I should have caught this a long time ago. ACORN’s workers have several convictions of vote fraud, and was also tied into the housing loan scandals through intimidation tactics. I missed the obvious when looking for a redmeat tie between ACORN, Obama’s work as a community organizer and these scandals. Obama was a “community organizer” and doesn’t mention the name of it. I focused on looking at the Annenberg and Woods funds, and already knew about the Joyce Foundation. I didn’t take a good look at his legal record however. Law records are some of the most preserved records in this country.

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There was an interesting dynamic to the bailouts. This was a populist revolution against leadership. About 40% of the democrats said no. Over 60% of the Republicans voted no. I salute those that voted no, from Mike Pence to Dennis Kucinich to our state delegation that said “No deals.” Mike Rogers, Tim Walberg, Thad McCotter, Pete Hoekstra, Joe Knollenberg, Candice Miller, John Conyers, Bart Stupak, and Carolyn Kilpatrick. 6 Republicans and 3 democrats.

The finger pointing has begun. Some blame Pelosi. Some blame some Republicans who may have thought about voting for it until Pelosi ran her big mouth. Some blame Bush and Paulson. Some blame the dems. Some blame Mike Pence who was one of the few real leaders in this.

Simplify this.
John Boehner voted for this and was part of the GOP leadership. He called the bill a “crap sandwich”. I agree with him. The question to Boehner is this. Why did you vote for a “crap sandwich?” Why did you push for the rest of the GOP to go for this “crap sandwich” that even 40% of the democrats refused to back? This isn’t leadership. Real leadership is pushing an alternative plan to this, one that isn’t a bandaid. This quote also isn’t leadership and is part of the reason why democrats currently control the house.

“I do believe we could have gotten there today if it had not been for this partisan speech the speaker gave on the floor of the House”

That’s Boehner. I think we could have gotten there if we wern’t given a “crap sandwich” (your quote) of a bill. Boehner would have lost my vote if I lived in his district. This is why I wanted Pence to be minority leader.

Where did the real leadership come on this bill? McCotter started the major push in the house with a speech on TV. This was his post vote statement. “The voice of the Main Street has been heeded and obeyed by Congress. Americans said ‘No!’ to the Paulson bailout. Now, let our work commence in earnest and prudence on behalf of the American people.”

Mike Pence was one the most visable leaders on this. “”Ask yourselves why you came here and vote with courage and integrity to those principles. If, like me, you came here because you believe in limited government and the freedom of the American marketplace, I urge you vote in accordance with your convictions. Stand up for limited government and economic freedom. Stand up for the American taxpayer. Reject this bailout and vote no on the emergency economic stabilization act,”

Pence and the Republican Study Committee had an alternative plan here that wasn’t a crap sandwich.
Three of the best quotes here are from fellow Midwesterners in Indiana. One is Republican, one democrat. Both opposed the bill. All said close to the same thing.

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I believe in Godwin’s law, so I won’t use the terms Nazi or Fascist here, but Obama’s camp supports pissing on the first amendment as he does the second amendment. This is a typical page from the Chicago/Axelrod/Mayor Daley school of Machine Politics. Obama doesn’t like the NRA ads, so he pushes to censor them. Look out NRA, you may wake up next to a stallion head next to you tomorrow morning…..

This is the NRA ad that Obama’s goons wants to censor.

Politico has the source. Most of this was a letter from the NRA in response

The Obama campaign has written radio stations in Pennsylvania and Ohio, pressing them to refuse to air an ad from the National Rifle Association.

“This advertisement knowingly misleads your viewing audience about Senator Obama’s position on the Second Amendment,” says the letter from Obama general counsel Bob Bauer. “For the sake of both FCC licensing requirements and the public interest, your station should refuse to continue to air this advertisement.”

I know the bill in contention very well, as well as the context behind it, so the NRA not only is accurate, but in this case, the context of the ad is more inflammatory than the bill itselt. Most who know me know that I refer to one of the ammo bans as the “30-30 ban.” That’s the bill. I’ll get to that later. Back to the letter:

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I believe in Godwin’s law, so I won’t use the terms Nazi or Fascist here, but Obama’s camp supports pissing on the first amendment as he does the second amendment. This is a typical page from the Chicago/Axelrod/Mayor Daley school of Machine Politics. Obama doesn’t like the NRA ads, so he pushes to censor them. Look out NRA, you may wake up next to a stallion head next to you tomorrow morning…..

This is the NRA ad that Obama’s goons wants to censor.

Politico has the source. Most of this was a letter from the NRA in response

The Obama campaign has written radio stations in Pennsylvania and Ohio, pressing them to refuse to air an ad from the National Rifle Association.

“This advertisement knowingly misleads your viewing audience about Senator Obama’s position on the Second Amendment,” says the letter from Obama general counsel Bob Bauer. “For the sake of both FCC licensing requirements and the public interest, your station should refuse to continue to air this advertisement.”

I know the bill in contention very well, as well as the context behind it, so the NRA not only is accurate, but in this case, the context of the ad is more inflammatory than the bill itselt. Most who know me know that I refer to one of the ammo bans as the “30-30 ban.” That’s the bill. I’ll get to that later. Back to the letter:

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I believe in Godwin’s law, so I won’t use the terms Nazi or Fascist here, but Obama’s camp supports pissing on the first amendment as he does the second amendment. This is a typical page from the Chicago/Axelrod/Mayor Daley school of Machine Politics. Obama doesn’t like the NRA ads, so he pushes to censor them. Look out NRA, you may wake up next to a stallion head next to you tomorrow morning…..

This is the NRA ad that Obama’s goons wants to censor.

Politico has the source. Most of this was a letter from the NRA in response

The Obama campaign has written radio stations in Pennsylvania and Ohio, pressing them to refuse to air an ad from the National Rifle Association.

“This advertisement knowingly misleads your viewing audience about Senator Obama’s position on the Second Amendment,” says the letter from Obama general counsel Bob Bauer. “For the sake of both FCC licensing requirements and the public interest, your station should refuse to continue to air this advertisement.”

I know the bill in contention very well, as well as the context behind it, so the NRA not only is accurate, but in this case, the context of the ad is more inflammatory than the bill itselt. Most who know me know that I refer to one of the ammo bans as the “30-30 ban.” That’s the bill. I’ll get to that later. Back to the letter:

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This is part 9 of a series posted on my blog. I did not post 1-8 since a lot of the similar stuff is covered here already. Since I posted this on my site, Washington State had a couple of polls showing it closer than expected. I did not see any Oregon polls. I did not move those two states to the tossup section. If I do, that gives more scenarios for McCain to win.

Based on previous election results and polls up to a few days ago, I have as follows:
Solid McCain – 139 votes
Lean McCain – 61 votes (North Carolina, Georgia, Montana, Missouri, North Dakota, South Dakota, Indiana)
Total McCain – 200 votes

Solid Obama – 171 votes
Lean Obama – 26 (Washington, Oregon, Iowa, Maine’s 2nd District)
Total Obama – 197 votes

Assuming this is true, that means McCain needs 70 votes, and Obama 73 votes. (or 72 votes to tie and likely win by legislatures)

I’ll seperate the tossups into two categories. “Big 4″ and the rest.
Big 4:
Florida – 27
Pennsylvania – 21
Ohio – 20
Michigan – 17
Those four are 85 votes.

Rest:
Virginia – 13
Wisconsin – 10
Minnesota – 10
Colorado – 9
Nevada – 5
New Mexico – 5
New Hampshire – 4

56 votes out of the rest. Total of 141 votes in the tossups.

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All information came from http://thomas.loc.gov

During this current Congress, Obama has had three things passed in the senate. You can find this at http://thomas.loc.gov

1. S.RES.133 : A resolution celebrating the life of Bishop Gilbert Earl Patterson.

2. S.RES.268 : A resolution designating July 12, 2007, as “National Summer Learning Day”.

3. S.RES.600 : A resolution commemorating the 44th anniversary of the deaths of civil rights workers Andrew Goodman, James Chaney, and Michael Schwerner in Philadelphia, Mississippi, while working in the name of American democracy to register voters and secure civil rights during the summer of 1964, which has become known as “Freedom Summer”.

In his previous Congress, we have five things.
1. S.RES.291 : A resolution to congratulate the Chicago White Sox on winning the 2005 World Series Championship.

1. S.RES.516 : A resolution recognizing the historical significance of Juneteenth Independence Day and expressing the sense of the Senate that history should be regarded as a means for understanding the past and solving the challenges of the future.

2. S.RES.529 : A resolution designating July 13, 2006, as “National Summer Learning Day”.

3. S.2125 : A bill to promote relief, security, and democracy in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

4. S.3757 : A bill to designate the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 950 Missouri Avenue in East St. Louis, Illinois, as the “Katherine Dunham Post Office Building”.

What change he has brought to Washington. What change he will bring as a president based on his record.

When Obama’s camp talks about Palin’s experience and compares her to Dan Quayle, tell them that Obama can’t shine Dan Quayle’s boots, let alone Sarah Palin’s shoes. He hasn’t done jacks**t.

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This is a risky, but high reward pick for McCain. Overall, I’d give it an A- (and four years from now, an A+). I have to give McCain a lot of credit here for having the guts to make his own pick and not one a lot of the establishment was hoping for (Romney).

From a personal standpoint, Palin was my 2nd choice…..of EVERYBODY. Mark Sanford was my first and would have been the A+ pick (experience edge), but what this does with me is for the first time ever, really get me to vote FOR somebody for President/VP instead of just voting AGAINST the other people.

As recently in 2006, I had no plans at all to vote for McCain. The DC v Heller decision as well as the other judicial issues, the pork spending, and Mr. Obama changed my mind at least on voting. McCain wasn’t my last choice in the primary, but wasn’t my first. This pick for VP got me on the bandwagon, and not because Palin is a woman. It is because when it comes to the right things, Palin has walked the walk.

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