The Burning Question: Gross Incompetence Or Cloward-Piven Strategy?

I liked Steven Den Beste’s post over at  Hot Air, today: The Paranoid Answer because it’s nice to know that other rational people are struggling with the same questions I  have… questions  that boil down to:  Is Obama and his cohorts just grossly incompetent, slow learners when it comes to the economy and the Gulf oil spill, or is the destruction of the economy and Gulf intentional? Are we witnessing Cloward-Piven strategy of manufactured crisis in action?  I admit, after having researched Obama’s background as thoroughly as I have, I’ve leaned toward the “paranoid”, “tin foil hat” explanation.

Back in Feb 26, 2008, Spengler asked, “Who is Barack Obama”, and was amazingly prescient in his analysis:

Barack Obama is a clever fellow who imbibed hatred of America with his mother’s milk, but worked his way up the elite ladder of education and career. He shares the resentment of Muslims against the encroachment of American culture, although not their religion. He has the empathetic skill set of an anthropologist who lives with his subjects, learns their language, and elicits their hopes and fears while remaining at emotional distance. That is, he is the political equivalent of a sociopath. The difference is that he is practicing not on a primitive tribe but on the population of the United States.

There is nothing mysterious about Obama’s methods. “A demagogue tries to sound as stupid as his audience so that they will think they are as clever as he is,” wrote Karl Krauss. Americans are the world’s biggest suckers, and laugh at this weakness in their popular culture. Listening to Obama speak, Sinclair Lewis’ cynical tent-revivalist Elmer Gantry comes to mind, or, even better, Tyrone Power’s portrayal of a carnival mentalist in the 1947 film noire Nightmare Alley. The latter is available for instant viewing at Netflix, and highly recommended as an antidote to having felt uplifted by an Obama speech.

America has the great misfortune to have encountered Obama at the peak of his powers at its worst moment of vulnerability in a generation. With malice aforethought, he has sought out their sore point.

***

Be afraid – be very afraid. America is at a low point in its fortunes, and feeling sorry for itself. When Barack utters the word “hope”, they instead hear, “handout”. A cynic might translate the national motto, E pluribus unum, as “something for nothing”. Now that the stock market and the housing market have failed to give Americans something for nothing, they want something for nothing from the government. The trouble is that he who gets something for nothing will earn every penny of it, twice over.

Spengler could see in Feb, 2008 that we were dealing with an elite leftist who hated American exceptionalism. Tragically, the Dem Socialist majority in Congress have been more than happy to enable a President bent on our decline.

James Simpson of The American Thinker. pronounced in 11/09:

It is time to cast aside all remaining doubt. President Obama is not trying to lead America forward to recovery, prosperity and strength. Quite the opposite, in fact…

…The real goal of “health care” legislation, the real goal of “cap-and-trade,” and the real goal of the “stimulus” is to rip the guts out of our private economy and transfer wide swaths of it over to the government to control. Do not be deluded by the propaganda. These initiatives are vehicles for change. They are not goals in and of themselves except in their ability to deliver power. They and will make matters much worse, for that is their design.

***
These people are our enemies. They don’t use guns, yet, but they are just as dangerous, determined, and duplicitous as the communists we faced in the Cold War, Korea, Vietnam, and bush wars across the globe, and the Nazis we faced in World War II
It is time we fully internalized and digested this fact, with all its ugly ramifications. These people have violated countless laws and could be prosecuted, had we the political power. Not only are their policies unconstitutional, but deliberately so — the goal being to make the Constitution irrelevant. Their spending is off the charts and will drive us into hyperinflation, but it could be rescinded, had we the political power. These policies are toxic, but they could be stopped and reversed, had we the political power. Their ideologies are poisonous, but they could be exposed for what they are, with long jail sentences as an object lesson, had we the political power.

One aspect of Obama’s agenda Den Beste’s Hot Air piece didn’t deal with, was foreign policy. As he makes one wrong move after another, one can only ask….is he doing it on purpose? Spengler predicted that Obama would do his utmost to destroy America’s standing as a superpower. He said, “it might take the country another generation to recover”.

Charles Krauthammer, for one,  has had it with the absurdities of Obama’s National Security Strategy:

President Obama’s National Security Strategy insists on calling the enemy — how else do you define those seeking your destruction? – “a loose network of violent extremists.” But this is utterly meaningless. This is not an anger-management therapy group gone rogue. These are people professing a powerful ideology rooted in a radical interpretation of Islam, in whose name they propagandize, proselytize, terrorize and kill.

Why is this important? Because the first rule of war is to know your enemy. If you don’t, you wander into intellectual cul-de-sacs and ignore the real causes that might allow you to prevent recurrences.

The Pentagon report on the Fort Hood shooter runs 86 pages with not a single mention of Hasan’s Islamism. It contains such politically correct inanities as “religious fundamentalism alone is not a risk factor.”

Of course it is. Indeed, Islamist fundamentalism is not only a risk factor. It is the risk factor, the common denominator linking all the great terror attacks of this century – from 9/11 to Mumbai, from Fort Hood to Times Square, from London to Madrid to Bali. The attackers were of various national origin, occupation, age, social class, native tongue and race. The one thing that united them was the jihadist vision in whose name they acted.

And what do we use NASA for, now that space exploration is off the agenda? It becomes an expensive,  high tech, international social program, with these (you’ve got to be kidding me) goals: “re-inspire children” to study science and math, to “expand our international relationships,” and to “reach out to the Muslim world.

A visibly disgusted Krauthammer did not hold back on Special Report, tonight:

“This is a new type of fatuousness. NASA was established to get America into space and to keep us there. This idea of ‘feel good about your past’ scientific achievements is the worst kind of group therapy, psycho-babble, imperial condescension and adolescent diplomacy. If I didn’t know that Obama had told him this, I’d demand the firing of Charles Bolden.”

Video at link (Gateway Pundit).

As Charles said;  unbelievable.

This whole Presidency has been like a bad dream, but at least Michelle’s proud.

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Video: John Boehner Hits Back

Obama took the opportunity, (as is his fashion) to attack John Boehner, in his speech in Racine, WI, last week.

Is John Boehner going to sit there and take that crap?

Hell no, he won’t! He hit back with, “What About The Country, Mr. President?” :

Transcript:

“WHAT ABOUT THE COUNTRY, MR. PRESIDENT?”

House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH): “This week, President Obama traveled to Racine, Wisconsin — a city with 14 percent unemployment — and used his time there to attack me. But I’d ask the President several questions:”

President Obama: “In the Gulf, we don’t yet know what caused the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.”

Boehner: “Why aren’t you focused on stopping the oil spill in the Gulf and getting the Gulf cleaned up?”

President Obama: “The second thing we’ve got to do is make sure that we’ve got regulations in place so that people don’t get tricked into buying homes that they can’t afford again.”

Boehner: “Why aren’t you focused on reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?”

President Obama: “The debt is getting bigger, the deficit is getting bigger. How do we get government spending under control?”
Leader Boehner: “Why aren’t you focused on cutting spending now?”

President Obama: “So if I had been just thinking politics I would have sent you one big check with my picture on it.”

Leader Boehner: “Why isn’t the President focused on creating jobs that the American people are asking for?”

Leader Boehner: “Mr. President, what about the country?”

Hat tip: Newsmax

Related:

Har.

I gotta share what I found when I googled, “John Boehner Hell no, You can’t!”

Serves those Celebrity Utopians right.

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Unbelievable!: Right Before 4th of July Holiday Weekend, Congress “Deemed Faux $1.1 Trillion Budget ‘as Passed’

This Congress is lawless….H Res 1500 passed 215-210, Thursday night, another insane, irresponsible spending measure, with no Republican votes.

Jane Jamisen at Uncoverage.net says they snuck it through while our attention was elsewhere….and nobody in the media but Human Events is talking about it:

In what has become the typical late Friday ”data-dump”, Obama/Democrat shellgame, Congress pulled yet another  fast one on us late last week.  This was also a week before a major holiday, with most of the nation fixated on summer “va-kay,” so the deception was even more likely to be ignored.  We have learned the hard way with this Obama administration that when you LEAST want something important to happen, is when it is most LIKELY to happen.

We were “told” by the president of the United States to “look over here” while he gave an “important” speech on his immigration policy.  Hearings on the most radical Marxist ever nominated to the U.S. Supreme court were wrapping up.  The oil was still spewing helter-skelter in the Gulf, and we discovered even less is being done than we thought.  Gen. Petraeus was getting ready to take over the (faulty) Afghanistan war, sanctions were locking into place on Iran.

In the midst of all that, has anyone noticed that there is NO federal budget for the United States but the House of Representatives is spending lots of money anyway?

Human Events reported on the 2nd, when most people were preparing their big  holiday weekend:

Last night, as part of a procedural vote on the emergency war supplemental bill, House Democrats attached a document that “deemed as passed” a non-existent $1.12 trillion budget. The execution of the “deeming” document allows Democrats to start spending money for Fiscal Year 2011 without the pesky constraints of a budget.

The procedural vote passed 215-210 with no Republicans voting in favor and 38 Democrats crossing the aisle to vote against deeming the faux budget resolution passed.

Never before — since the creation of the Congressional budget process — has the House failed to pass a budget, failed to propose a budget then deemed the non-existent budget as passed as a means to avoid a direct, recorded vote on a budget, but still allow Congress to spend taxpayer money.

House Budget Committee Ranking Member Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) warned this was the green light for Democrats to continue their out-of-control spending virtually unchecked.

“Facing a record deficit and a tidal wave of debt, House Democrats decided it was politically inconvenient to put forward a budget and account for their fiscal recklessness.  With no priorities and no restraints, the spending, taxing, and borrowing will continue unchecked for the coming fiscal year,” Ryan said.  “The so-called ‘budget enforcement resolution’ enforces no budget, but instead provides a green light for the Appropriators to continue spending, exacerbating our looming fiscal crisis.”

Ryan, speaking on the House floor said Dems have decided that they’re going to delegate responsibility for the budget  to the President’s Fiscal Commission. He wonders:  “Whatever happened to the separation of powers?”

I don’t know how the man is able to keep his cool, under these circumstances:

RELATED:

Nile Gardiner: UK Telegraph: America is sinking under Obama’s towering debt:

The CBO warns of potentially devastating consequence for the United States if this debt mountain is not tackled, and even points out that its “projections understate the severity of the long-term budget problem because they do not incorporate the significant negative effects that accumulating substantial amounts of additional federal debt would have on the economy”:

Large budget deficits would reduce national saving, leading to higher interest rates, more borrowing from abroad, and less domestic investment—which in turn would lower income growth in the United States. Growing debt would also reduce lawmakers’ ability to respond to economic downturns and other challenges.

Over time, higher debt would increase the probability of a fiscal crisis in which investors would lose confidence in the government’s ability to manage its budget, and the government would be forced to pay much more to borrow money.

The CBO assessment is probably the most important economic report the President of the United States will read this year. And it should be a huge wake-up call for the Obama administration, which has so far adopted a policy of sticking its head in the sand in the face of an impending Greek-style financial crisis in the very near future.

Weasel Zippers: Analyst: Dow Jones Repeating Pattern That Appeared Just Before Great Depression Crash…

Well said!:

Steve McCann, The Thinker: The 4th of July and the Progressive Overreach

On this 4th of July, 2010, when the future of the United States appears to be in serious jeopardy, it should be noted that sometimes in the history of a nation, what appears to be an event that could lead to long-term disaster may, in fact, be its long-term salvation. A case in point: the election of Barack Obama as president and the Democrats in full control of the Congress. To be sure, the far-left domination of government is not a situation to be wished for, but in a perverse way, it was necessary.

Over the past fifty years, regardless of who was in the White House or in charge of Congress, no one has been able to halt the incessant spread of Progressivism in our institutions and the concurrent uncontrolled spending and growth of government. When a president as accomplished as Ronald Reagan was unable to do so, no future Republican president or Congress, short of a major national catastrophe, could ever fully turn back this tide, as they could not overcome the apathy of the people and the hostility of the media, academia, the entertainment establishment, and federal bureaucracies.
A long as the American people remained largely disengaged (the result of unprecedented prosperity), the damage done to the society as a whole and to the long-term financial health of the country was unknown to the vast majority. This indifference has begun to undergo significant change as the reality of the nation’s future comes into focus, but that reality has started to come to the fore only as the result of the policies being pursued by a far-left government.
Today, thanks to a confluence of two factors, the opportunity exists to reverse the course the United States has been on and change the political power structure in the country.
The first: the emergence of alternative news sources that has broken the stranglehold on the dissemination of news by the traditional outlets dominated by the left.
The second:  The election of a president steeped in socialist/Marxist ideology and a Congress controlled by the Progressive element of the Democratic Party.
A trait common to those on the far left is an inability to have any humility; there is an intense conviction of superiority, both intellectually and in their capability to rule the masses. The true believers are incapable of hiding their philosophy and, once elected, are convinced that nearly everyone does or should share their dedication to the power of a central government. Those who do not conform will be demonized. These extremists will move heaven and earth to achieve their ends, regardless of any long-term consequences, and they cannot avoid shouting from the rooftops what they are doing as tribute to themselves.
The determination of Obama and the Congress to exploit the financial and economic crisis and, more recently, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in order to pass their agenda has had the effect of kicking over the rocks and exposing for all to see the undermining of the social and fiscal foundation of the nation by the left-wing radicals in Congress, the administration, and many of our institutions.

Repeat after me: November is coming…November is coming…

Linked by Frugal Cafe and Hyscience, thanks!

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George Galloway Incites Muslim Crowd With Warning To Infidels: “you will have to fight your way through 10,000 dead bodies…”

Herald Scotland reports:

Police are examining complaints that George Galloway gave an inflammatory speech at a rally attended by thousands of Muslims in which he claimed that far-right English Defence League (EDL) activists would have to fight their way “through 10,000 dead bodies” if they interfered with members of the Islamic faith in Britain.

The Metropolitan Police said officers are now looking into statements made by the left-wing Scottish politician during the speech made to more than 3,000 people at a rally and march in London in June.

The police have video footage of the former Glasgow MP, who is a founding member of the Respect Party, telling the rally: “To the EDL, take a look around you boys. Take a look around you. If you dare touch a hijab [hair cover] on a Muslim woman’s head, if you dare touch the hair on the beard of a Muslim man in Tower Hamlets, you will have to fight your way through 10,000 dead bodies first.”

A police spokesman said: “The complaints have been referred to officers and they are being considered. There is no formal investigation as yet and we are assessing the evidence.”

Footage of the Dundee-born former MP’s speech was also placed online at YouTube under the heading: “Why half a million Brits vote BNP. George Galloway incites race violence.”

Here is the clip:

The man is a menace to society. This, in my opinion, is incitement.

Here’s another video from last month of Galloway speaking to a Muslim crowd about the Israeli blockade on Gaza, saying,  the “Zionist grip on Israel days are  now numbered”, and “I have the earth from the (flotilla) martyrs’ graves in Istanbul still on my shoes, and I will never wash them”:

WTF?

Galloway is no longer an MP in the district so he’s not just pandering ….His rhetoric goes well beyond what you expect from the  leftist/Islamic alliance:

Hat tip: Weasel Zippers

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10-Buck Friday Poll For Week of 7/4

A new poll is up for the week of July 4, the winner of which will be announced this Friday, and will receive this week’s 10 buck money-bombs. If you’re new to 10-Buck Friday, more info can be found, here.

This week’s contestants are Patrick Murray (VA-8), Charles Lollar (MD-5), Teresa Collett (MN-4), Daniel Gilyeat (KS-3), Marco Rubio (FL-Sen), Ann Marie Buerkle (NY-25), Liz Carter (GA-4), Rick Barber (AL-2), Daria Novak (CT-2), and Eric Wargotz (MD-Sen).

A  word about Dan Gilyeat, (KS-3) – (the ND favorite):


In March of 1995 he enlisted in the Marines. Daniel stood tall and proud on those yellow foot prints in San Diego, California on that day and he says he “felt that his heart would burst with pride”. It was the beginning of the ultimate, most life changing, most disciplined, way of life he could imagine. He wanted to test his mettle to be the Warrior he had always wanted to be.

The first day of boot camp he says in the blink of an eye something exploded inside him and he remembered saying “here we go, what the hell have I gotten myself into?” The Drill Instructors did their jobs and did them well. Danny thought at times his instructors were trying to kill him. He decided he would rather die than fail and give them the satisfaction. Failure was not an option.

His first 4 years of active duty moved fast. He started out as a Mechanic and then developed a second MOS as a Machine Gunner. He was stationed in Okinawa, Japan. He loved the military life but toward the end of his tour he married and started a family. He decided to leave the military after 4 years of active duty and return home to try and stabilize his family’s lives.

He moved his family back to Kansas where grew up but the pull of the warrior heart was still nagging at him. He decided to join an active Reserve unit not far from his home. Then came the life defining moment for America and for Daniel; the Terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001.

Daniel’s Warrior heart snapped to attention. He thought of all the Americans who were now afraid of another attack. He wanted his children to know that their Father would protect and defend them. He also wanted America to know that there were men and women who would give their lives to protect the very freedoms that were now under attack. He decided to go back on Active Duty.

He did his first tour of duty in Iraq in 2003.  The warrior heart was now fully awake. He volunteered for a second tour and went back to Iraq in 2005. That warrior heart was almost stopped on July 3rd, 2005, on a dusty road in Iraq when he and his crew drove over an anti tank mine with their Humvee. SSgt. Daniel Gilyeat lost his left leg in the blast. He lay on the ground for thirty minutes and told jokes to his crew to help them come out of the daze of the explosion until help arrived. He was still in charge.

He died twice, he was told, on the Helicopter ride back to the military medical facilities. He went for more than an hour before he got any medical treatment for the loss of his limb or his huge loss of blood. He remembered what his Mother had told him as a boy whenever he got hurt, “It’s not that bad, it’ll heal”.

His warrior heart wouldn’t stop beating and he used that warrior mentality to beat back death. He survived. 27 days after surgery he was, to the amazement of his doctors and nurses, using his prosthetic leg and was walking again. Two and a half months later he had stopped taking all medication and he was doing things he was told he would never be able to do with a prosthetic leg.

It took two prosthetic legs but he tried and succeeded in doing Martial Arts again. The warrior heart was beating strong and he also was attempting and succeeding at water skiing, snow skiing, Tia Chi, climbing stairs, lifting engines and riding a Harley.  He was now doing more with one leg that most people, with two legs, ever do.

Mmmkay? Did you catch all that? The man has given much for his country, so let’s do what we can to give back. Let’s help get this  patriot elected to Congress.

You can vote for this week’s contestants, here.

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