Broken Union

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100128/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_fact_check

We had already seen a member of congress call him a liar to his face during a speech and last night we saw a justice of the supreme court do the same. Then congress as a whole laughed at his ridiculous claim that the federal budget will be fiscally responsible "next year."

Wake up.

Yes, President Obama is an excellent speaker. However actions speak louder than words and that is where he comes up lacking. How often has he said one thing and then done the opposite? I think probably more often then when he has actually followed through. Perhaps if he actually had some leadership experience before becoming president he might be doing a better job.

larry, this from Glenn Greenwald…..you've posted his stuff before….

"Justice Alito's flamboyantly insinuating himself into a pure political event, in a highly politicized manner, will only hasten that decline. On a night when both tradition and the Court's role dictate that he sit silent and inexpressive, he instead turned himself into a partisan sideshow — a conservative Republican judge departing from protocol to openly criticize a Democratic President — with Republicans predictably defending him and Democrats doing the opposite. Alito is now a political (rather than judicial) hero to Republicans and a political enemy of Democrats, which is exactly the role a Supreme Court Justice should not occupy."

sideshow indeed

All conducted by Obama, walt. It wasn't very nice for that congress member to shout out "you lie" or for everyone to laugh when Obama claimed he'd start being fiscally responsible next year, either. When a U.S. President brings shame upon the office by making preposterous lies on such a stage, what should audience members do?

The great orator breaks all common sense and tradition and calls out the SCOTUS in a State of the Union speech? Great leader. Basically did the same thing that all of the progressives got mad at when a Republican had the nerve to call out Obama on a lie. Oratorial masterpiece, indeed.

this is what Obama said……."“Last week, the Supreme Court reversed a century of law to open the floodgates for special interests — including foreign companies — to spend without limit in our elections,” Obama said tonight. “Well, I don’t think American elections should be bankrolled by America’s most powerful interests, and worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people, and that’s why I’m urging Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps to right this wrong.”

why is that an attack?

It looks like a call to action to me

He pretty much called them traitors, walt. Which is funny, coming from a deep cover Muslim communist infiltrator.

where did he pretty much call them traitors?

If people would look into the words and not how he delivers them they would see that he has a problem with stretching the truth and that his ideas are grandiose at best and will cost America a lot of cash.

What were his promises on lobbiests not controlling legislation? WTF? He has what 5 or 6 in his cabinet or as czars? He changed his whole healthcare plan to suit the unions and healtcare companies that got him elected.

If the way the banksters did business is what killed our economy, why are we still allowing the poisonous parts to continue? Including bundling bad debt, naked short selling, huge bonus"(Which I am for, for traders. Performance based salaries is how everyone should work) and a host of new fees that congress has allowed the banks to charge. How long do you think it will take the banks to make $90B when they have raised their fees on everything. Whoa watch out don't walk through the mirror because you can't see through the smoke. WTF?
Do they think we are stupid? Maybe most people are especially his followers because they are swallowing thing sh*t hook, line and sinker.
The banks got him elected. His business with them is done with a wink and a nod.

He save 2000000 jobs. WTF? At what cost and how are we counting this? We are still bleeding jobs, huge American companies are eiither shutting down or laying off massive amounts of people monthly. His answer to this is for us to pay billions for a highspeed train system to create jobs? Whose lobbying for that, let's see, the unions? What is this Europe? Are the American citizens who paid for this going to get to use it for free? It's funny that we use huge amounts of cash from poor smokers being taxed to build stadiums and the poor people that funded it can't go becuase they can't afford it, this will be similar. But that's okay with libs especially the politicains who get their PSL's and tickets for free.

I noticed the only car company that didn't take govt cash made a profit $2B this quarter. GM needs another hand out and CHrysler will shutter is doors. Does this say anything? All 3 were in the same boat last year.

I suppose that since George Soros "got him this job" like an influential uncle, and it looks like he will be a single termer, the use of big cash from "good buddy big business" isn't a good idea. It's not that I am for this or against it, it's that now that he took advantage of it, it should be overruled. This is a BS talking point like abortion anyway.

Since when is it responsible to only pay a certain % of your salary to student loans and then get the rest forgiven afte 10 years. Is that responsible spending?
We already have a program like that, it's called the military. Or welfare. So what he just told the schools is to go ahead and keep charging and increasing the ridiculous prices you are charging for your service. We've(the people of the US) have your back.WTF? This was worse than Bush telling America that he wanted to fill the oil reserves, because it it going to have a long term effect and we will eventually have to cancel it.

We wll be fiscally responsible beginning next year? First we must question why do many of the current fixes begin after the Obama's 1st or second term? Saying he will do it next year is like a fat person promising to lose weight starting on NY Day. That will last a week and then some special interest will come and ask him for a favor.

It was a beautiful "RahRah Cisboomba"l speech. A call to action. One that we hear every year from every president. A, I gotta cover my tracks and tell everyone that I did a good job and am going to try to do better speech. If one of my employees came to me and said that they wasted a whole year on a project and still couldn't get the client to buy it, in fact the client seemed to push it farther away, would I pat him on the back and say "good job buckaroo, you tried your hardest." Uh that would be a big no.

If I had a manager that was still blaming the old manager for his lack of progress would I pat him on the back and say "hey, keep your head up". That would also be a no.

His inexperieince is glaring.
Also Rev it is hard to read this whole story when the 3rd sentence begins the lies. He does lie, he does stretch the truth. It's okay, keep telling yourself otherwise. It's okay though because we're used to it, all of our politicians have lied to us to better their chances of re-election.

The thing that bothered me the most about the whole thing is that we had to look at the F'ing rat congress and Nancy Pelosi that caused this whole frigging mess and are holding back any change to help the American people. They sat there like John Dillinger, whooping it up, yet guilty of robbing the people that provide their living.

This will be known as the " thanks for getting me elected, big payback, lost year in American history.

walt….in larry's world, because the Supremes are arch-conservative, they are above reproach.

America has 3 equal branches of government…… representatives from each branch have often called out leaders of other branches for stupid stuff they've done. What the president did in bringing up the Supremes rogue decision is what America is all about.

But larry goes over the top with this…."When a U.S. President brings shame upon the office by making preposterous lies on such a stage, what should audience members do?"

Good for an ironic laugh, that's all. Love the choice of "preposterous."

Now don't get me wrong. Even though it was one of the most unmotivated, tell them what my fellow dems need them to hear to get elected, talk about spend spend spend speeches ever. He is our president and I like the guy(not so much that I would hang with him and his limo driver). But he has potential if he would become more humble and would get rid of some of his pride and take responsibility for what is happening and not blame the previous administration all the time, but that is a lib thinking trait. He can make you feel warm and safe through his use of NLP. He just needs to find more suitable work. Oh yeah and Rev, his wife is definitely one of the hot babes of the Dem party. She would fit right in with having tea and cookies with Sarah and her conservative friends.

I find I've been using the word "preposterous" much more often now that I'm reading your blog, Reverend.

Walt, read the quote you copy and pasted. Then if you still can't see where he's calling the Supreme Court a bunch of traitors, ask a friend for help.

It is a sad state of affairs when the country has gotten to the point where the President cannot criticize the Supreme Court utilizing his right free speech. Oh yes that's right it's coming from a bunch of poor victimized Republicans. Always so victimized, having their rights infringed, etc.

Bottom line the Citizens United decision was a horrible one. The fact that McCain (a Republican himself) has not criticized this decision shows how "non-Maverick" he is, he now just a total conservative stooge. The "true Republicans" disappeared a long time ago only to have their seats taken by Conservatives and Libertarian idiots.

larry…I know what you mean….when I'm reading King's blog I'm using "cat torturer republican Dr. Bill Frist" much more often.

Yeah, Walt and Larry I'm using the name Larry Sinclair more often because I'm finding it more and more appropriate for both our president and congress(Dem and Rep)

To Save the Earth, Encourage Economic Freedom
By Terry Miller Anthony Kim
– FOXNews.com
The best way to create sustainable environmental policies around the world is to increase economic growth and the standard of living.
A shadow hung over the Copenhagen conference. The credibility of sophiscated climate science has been tainted by allegations that key scientists and institutions manipulated data and access to publications to support the case for global warming. Still, many around the world would support sensible, cost-effective strategies to minimize the risk of man-made global climate change.
The inconvenient truth, however, is that the mammoth government regulatory schemes discussed at Copenhagen are both prohibitively expensive and unlikely to work — the worst possible combination in any cost/benefit analysis.
There is a better way.
For 15 years, The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal have been measuring economic freedom in countries worldwide. Our historical evidence and volumes of supportive social science research demonstrate that economic freedom is good not only for individual economic advancement, but for the progressive values and public goods that people seek for society as a whole.
It’s simply better to live in a free society. Higher levels of economic freedom lead to higher living standards and healthier human development. Greater economic freedom provides more choices and improves the quality of life by opening opportunities and promoting innovation.
The benefits of economic freedom also extend to environmental protection. Proponents of cap-and-trade schemes or other massive government regulatory interventions assert that only a strong government can protect the environment. In fact, the market forces unleashed in an economically free society are far more likely to drive economic results in the positive directions demanded by those concerned about the environment.
The most remarkable improvements in clean energy use and energy efficiency over the past decades haven’t been as a result of government regulation. The most progress was driven by advances in economic freedom and freer trade. These unleash greater economic opportunity and increase prosperity, generating a virtuous cycle of investment, innovation, and dynamic economic growth.
The fundamental flaw of those who favor new government regulations is their belief that there is a trade-off between economic growth and environmental protection. They seem to think that to get more of one, you have to have less of the other. The truth is just the opposite: to get more environmental protection you need more growth, not less. And the surest path to economic growth is through greater economic freedom.
A recent study from the World Bank reports that freer trade is “a key factor in helping developing countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to climate change.”
Other evidence abounds. The Environmental Performance Index (EPI), published by the World Economic Forum, the Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN), and the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy, provides “a composite index of current national environmental protection efforts.” Levels of economic freedom and the EPI are positively correlated at a statistically significant level. The freer the economy, the higher — and more sustainable — the level of environmental protection.
Policy efforts aimed at imposing stricter environmental standards through a global regulatory body run great risk of being not only fruitless, but counterproductive as well. They undercut the economic growth necessary for greater efforts to protect the environment. Such regulations only serve as feel-good actions, without generating real “change” that could mitigate climate change and its possible negative impacts. Countries in general — but developing countries in particular — are able to protect their environment only if their economies prosper and the standard of living of their citizens improves.
The surest way to promote sustainable environmental policies around the world is to increase economic growth and the standard of living. Increased government regulation would stifle that growth. The compelling force of economic freedom, by contrast, has been proven over and over, in countries around the world, to empower people, create positive forces of opportunity and innovation, and nourish overall well-being, including through a cleaner environment.
Terry Miller is the Director of the Center for International Trade and Economics (CITE) at The Heritage Foundation. Anthony Kim is a Policy Analyst in CITE.

Three times is the charm, averagejoe!

The reason that it is necessary for Obama to remind Americans of what he inherited from the tragic presidency of W. is because whore-media has a case of mass amnesia and forgot what happened between 2001-2009. Whore media doesn't remember Bush/Cheney ever being in the White House.

For example, one of the most widely circulated Villager lies is that Obama's deficit was $1.4 trillion for 2009….when it has been made very clear that he inherited $1.2 trillion of it from W. Conservatives, and the medi-whores who love them, don't like blaming a Republican president for anything, so they misinform their audiences daily. Obama was resetting the facts.

Conservatives are upset with Obama bringing up the past administration because they have been in a state of denial about Bush/Cheney. Conservatives still think Bush/Cheney didn't do anything out of the ordinary.

The truth is that Bush/Cheney devastated the U.S. in many ways. Reality-based Americans know this…but conservatives are still resistant to that truth. That's another reason why conservatives get so upset when Obama explains the failures, the disasters of the worst presidency in American history.

Obama either voted for (as a Senator) or signed off on (as a President) every federal dollar that was spent in 2009, Reverend.

So..Obama was President in 2008….and was also responsible for the financial disaster….dare I say it….left by an 8 year, non-profligate spending Republican administration?

Great post, averagejoe. I feel like you do, and when I got to the Reverend's line at the beginning where he said "Obama speaks the truth. He's not duplicitous," I quit reading. Obama is consistently dishonest, and his actions frequently do not match his words.

There were some things I liked about Obama's SOTU, but I'm going to wait to see if he follows through. He often doesn't. Often his words are just words. And when Obama said he welcomed ideas from Republicans on health care reform, after shutting out those ideas for the whole year, I could only shake my head at the dishonesty of it.

And he lied about the Supreme Court ruling too.

walter says, "larry…I know what you mean….when I'm reading King's blog I'm using "cat torturer republican Dr. Bill Frist" much more often."

The last time I saw Bill Frist, he was down in Haiti performing surgery after the earthquake. Yes, what a horrible human being. Get a clue, walt.

Jeff: If you wanted someone other than a conservative to read all of what you posted, you should have left out the fact that it was written by Fox news writers. I stopped right there. I knew it was either half truths or lies without reading further. I expect nothing "fair and balanced" from them.

Reverend says, "For example, one of the most widely circulated Villager lies is that Obama's deficit was $1.4 trillion for 2009….when it has been made very clear that he inherited $1.2 trillion of it from W. Conservatives, and the medi-whores who love them, don't like blaming a Republican president for anything, so they misinform their audiences daily. Obama was resetting the facts."

This is hilarious. Obama raised federal spending by 24% in his first year, then he passed the $862 billion stimulus. Now he's trying to pass a second stimulus for $175 billion, a trillion-dollar+ health care reform package, all the other spending programs he outlined in his SOTU, has an estimated $1.3 trillion 2010 deficit, structural deficits in the trillion dollar range projected basically forever, and the Reverend concludes…..it's the whore-media distorting the facts and it's all Bush's fault.

Freaking classic.

Bonus question – Which party controlled Congress during Bush's last year and approved all the deficit spending ?

Double bonus question – What was Obama's job at that time, and how did he vote on those matters ?

Answers – Obama is whining now about the very actions he and his party condoned in 2008. That's your non-duplicitous man, Reverend.

King either they don't know or refuse to believe that the Democrat congress elected in 2006 is responsible for 90% of this clusterf*ck we are now experieincing by thier irresponsible failure to not act. The American public was sacrificed by this group of bandits. Especially the middle class.
The funny thing is that even though they are bitching about executive bonus' and huge deficit spending and military costs and all the other things Bush was supposedly responsible for nothing has changed. Not even naked short selling or bundling derivitives or excessively low real estate down payments or lobbiests effecting legislation(is the unions big medical etc.) Now they are bribing each other and buying votes to get their socilaist plans rolling. Their is no more voting with thier gut or emotions or their core beliefs. It's about how can I get more cash. That's what happens when we have career politicans that are so out of touch with the people. I do like the drama. How they have Bernake and Geitner up on the hill every other week questioning them about what happened when they know very well what happened. Just like the 911 commission.
The reason the public isn't outraged about this is that his voting demographic have been given welfare out the ass. Bank bailouts,(actuallly free loans to some banks to make a killing in the forex and emerging markets) Cash for clunkers, cash to upgrade your house, $600 stimulous checks, extra unemployment benefits(the most dangerous benefit of all) It's a good guy(Obama) bad guy game(Bush still) that will catch up to them eventually. Thank God for conservative outlets that are exposing the devious and irresponsible things the left is doing and the people are waking up.
Meanwhile they are raising fees and costs to business and banks(allowing them to make more money after their free bailout loans) which will ultimately raise prices. And they still use their faovrite excuse for having to do all of this: Bush caused….
Will this catch up to them and the country? Yep in about 3 years when they figure out Barrack Claus can't do what he wants and we get that double dip recession.

I still like Rev's 3rd line…he tells the truth. When one must preface something like that something like that….
Does Chris Dodd tell the truth or Barney Frank? Or if we accuse Obama of lying are we being racist. Smoke and mirrors, that's all our entire govt is right now.

King….don't get me wrong….I can understand how you consider someone who lies to animal shelter workers, takes cats home and keeps them as pets for awhile and then chops them up to be an example of a wonderful human being.

really, I can

I'll let Obama respond to King's misunderstanding of fiscal facts…..this is from today's meeting with Republicans…..

"The fact of the matter is, is that when we came into office, the deficit was $1.3 trillion. $1.3 trillion. So — so when you say that suddenly I've got a monthly budget that is higher than the annual — or a monthly deficit that's higher than the annual deficit left by Republicans, that's factually just not true, and you know it's not true. And what is true is that we came in already with a $1.3 trillion deficit before I had passed any law. What is true is, we came in with $8 trillion worth of debt over the next decade.

Had nothing to do with anything that we had done. It had to do with the fact that in 2000, when there was a budget surplus of $200 billion, you had a Republican administration and a Republican Congress, and we had two tax cuts that weren't paid for, you had a prescription drug plan — the biggest entitlement plan, by the way, in several decades — that was passed, without it being paid for, you had two wars that were done through supplementals, and then you had $3 trillion projected because of the lost revenue of this recession.

OBAMA: That's $8 trillion. Now, we increased it by $1 trillion because of the spending that we had to make on the stimulus.

I am happy to have any independent factchecker out there take a look at your presentation versus mine in terms of the accuracy of what I just said."

I let Obama step in and do my, you know, light work.

Do you think he cried, Reverend? If he really believes all that he must think it's so not fair!

What wingers accuse him of is not fair, larry. But it's all part of the game, I understand. He has every right to shove the truth, the facts, down misinformation-spewing conservative throats.

Why would Obama cry, larry? With one-hand tied behind him, he successfully dispensed with wingnut lies and accusations. Villagers will be more difficult to shame and embarass…..but even that….I think Obama can do successfully.

Americans can choose to be on the side of disrespectful guys like Joe Wilson and Sam Alito….or they can choose to know the truth,…..and as Jesus said, "the truth wll set you free."

Avg., the Dems might have gained control but had no veto proof majority. Those budgets are all Bush's.

Reverend….I would think the problem that King has is remembering the wars in Iraq and Afganistan.

this from Justin Raimondo at Antiwar.com

"The State of the Empire

Not so good

Garet Garrett, the Old Right author and skeptical chronicler of the rise of empire, once remarked that the American Imperium is unlike any other in history in that "everything goes out and nothing comes in." While it’s true that a certain class of "entrepreneurs," i.e. the arms industry, profit from war, the country and the economy suffer a net loss. The American system of empire cannot sustain itself.

The diversion of so much wealth to maintain the mightiest military machine in the history of the world has been a tremendous drain that has depleted our savings and thrown us into an abyss of debt. We have mortgaged the future of our nation in order to "save" the world from itself – but there’s no payoff, except the emotional rewards of extreme nationalism and militarism."

http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2010/01/28/the-state-of-the-empire/

TBomb – It didn't matter. The budget wasn't the problem. They blocked and refused to even present legislation that would have softened the blow,either through a stimulous or whatever. I think they gave the people $600 or something didn't they? The main problem was fuel prices. If energy prices would have gone down much of this would have never happened. By Pelosi refusing to discuss and even promising the market there would be no drilling it allowed oil prices to skyrocket. The markets are largly controlled by news, emotion and greed. Just like when Bush said the US would be filling the reserves. That was the dumbest thing he ever did.

In fact if you review their control during the Bush last 2 years, they did nothing except stand back and let stuff happen. They didn't even accomplish any of the things they ran their campaigns on, which were promises to their people. These included gitmo, ending iraq, lower gas prices, etc. and they voted down every piece of Bush's attempts to stop the blood letting. These tactics are nothing new in an election year. Typical politics at the expense of the people.

Good point, Tbomb. Only need 34 GOP Senators to stop an override by Dems.

Reverend,
You didn't answer any of the questions I posed to you. Instead, you quoted Obama. My questions were an ANSWER to Obama. If Obama inherited deficits, he inherited them from a Democrat majority Congress. He inherited deficit spending and budgets that HE voted for. You didn't address anything I wrote, Rev.

I don't like to repeat myself. Try to keep up.