Tag Archives: Barack Obama

Hitler, Kennedy, and Obama – July, 18 – History Today

What do Adolf Hitler, Teddy Kennedy, and Barack Obama have in common? July 18th.

1925 – Hitler’s Mein Kampf is published.

Seven months after being released from Landsberg jail, Nazi leader Adolf Hitler publishes the first volume of his personal manifesto, Mein Kampf. Dictated by Hitler during his nine-month stay in prison, Mein Kampf, or “My Struggle,” was a bitter and turgid narrative filled with anti-Semitic outpourings, disdain for morality, worship of power, and the blueprints for his plan of Nazi world domination.

1969 – Chappaquiddick

On the evening of July 18, 1969, while most Americans were home watching television reports on the progress of the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission, Kennedy and his cousin Joe Gargan were hosting a cookout and party at a rented cottage on Chappaquiddick Island, an affluent island near Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. The party was planned as a reunion for Kopechne and five other women, all veterans of the late Senator Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 presidential campaign.

[...]

Just after 11 p.m., Kennedy left the party with Kopechne, by his account to drive to the ferry slip where they would catch a boat back to their respective lodgings in Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard. While driving down the main roadway, Kennedy took a sharp turn onto the unpaved Dike Road, drove for a short distance, and then missed the ramp to a narrow wooden bridge and drove into Poucha Pond.

It would be 10 hours later before Kennedy reported the incident.

1995 – Dreams from My Father by Bill Ayers Barack Obama is published.

On this day in 1995, “Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance,” a memoir by a little-known law professor named Barack Obama, is published. Obama wrote the book before entering politics; 13 years after it was published, he was elected America’s 44th president.

Buh Bye Van

Van Jones is out.

A White House environmental policy adviser who specialized in “green jobs” resigned on Sunday after an uproar over his previous affiliation with a September 11 conspiracy group.

Van Jones, special adviser on green jobs at the White House Council on Environmental Quality, apologized on Thursday after videotape surfaced of him using a crude epithet to describe Republicans and amid revelations he had signed a petition suggesting U.S. government involvement in the 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.

No mention of his other controversial positions and his desire for incremental restructuring of the entire American way of life. Still, gone is gone.

His face saving resignation used the old classic “distraction” rationale.

Jones said he was resigning to avoid being a distraction in the administration’s effort to pass healthcare reform and climate change legislation.

“On the eve of historic fights for health care and clean energy, opponents of reform have mounted a vicious smear campaign against me,” Jones said in a resignation letter that was released to the media.

“I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past. We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future,” he wrote.

Of course by “smear campaign” he must mean “pointing out the truth about my past and my beliefs”.

There’s only one possible response to this news.

NEXT!

Kash for Krakatoa Program

President Obama and the Democratic Congress are so excited about the Cash for Clunkers program that they have decided to go after an even more insidious greenhouse gas producer, Volcanoes. Lost between Mark “No Future in Politics” Sanford’s presser and the All Barack Chanel infomercial was this announcement from the White House:

Click for larger image

Click for larger image

The stunning pictures of Sarychev Peak taken by the ISS have inspired the President to ask Congress for legislation that will allow the world to trade in their old, high CO2 emitting volcanoes for newer, more eco-friendly models.

Not only will this help stem the crisis of global warming, but it will also save or create nearly 100,000 jobs. A third of those jobs will be dedicated to creating a new, greener volcano. Another third will try to figure out what to do with all the older model spewers, while the final third will go to ACORN to register democrat voters who will allow us to continue this silliness.

The basics of the program are this:

  • If you have an active volcano that you want to trade you can submit your application at Kash4Krakatoa.gov
  • If you purchase a volcano that emits 10% less CO2 you will receive a gift-card from Volcano Depot in the amount of $1,000,000.00
  • Trading in your spewer for a model with 20% less gaseous eruptions will earn you a $2 million dollar card, and for any trade in the exceeds 30% you will get a cool (hehe, we have a sense of humor) Billion dollars.
  • In addition, for any trade in you will also get a copy of An Inconvenient Truth autographed by High Priest Algore.

If this program is as successful as we anticipate we will be looking into developing a Septillion for Sunspots program that will really get to the heart of the matter while also achieving our ultimate goal of making the dollar worth about $0.00001

(h/t Mike’s America at Flopping Aces)

Souter to Retire

We are just past the hundred day mark and about to see what kind of appointment The Obamesiah will make to the Supreme Court.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter plans to retire, giving President Barack Obama his first chance to make an appointment to the nation’s highest court, a government official said.

The official, who requested anonymity, confirmed reports late on Thursday by NBC News and National Public Radio that Souter, one of the court’s liberal members, would step down.

His replacement will be more or less a wash in regards to the make up of the court. Matt Lewis notes the long term possibilities.

The good news for conservatives is that, because Souter was so liberal, his departure is unlikely to change the makeup of the court. It does, however, give Obama the opportunity to pick an even younger Justice who might be around for many years to come.

John Hinderaker has a good observation about the possible replacement.

At one time I would have expected Obama to exercise caution with his first Court appointment, but nothing we’ve seen in the last three months justifies that expectation. If Obama goes hard left, we could be in for the most interesting Congressional action of his young administration.

Brian also points out something that will undoubtedly prove to be correct.

And you want to know the kicker? Every damn nominee will be pushed by the media as some kind of centrist, despite having a far-left background. Remember, when John Roberts and Samuel Alito were nominated, we were treated to endless articles about how far right they were. When Clinton nominated Ginsburg, we were treated to endless articles and television pieces on how “moderate” she was. You better believe that, once Obama makes his choice known, it’ll be the same dog and pony show all over again by the liberal media.

The Reuter’s story suggests that court watchers think Obama’s first pick is likely to be a woman.

People mentioned as possible candidates include Solicitor General Elena Kagan, the administration’s top courtroom lawyer who argues before the Supreme Court; Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and appeals court judges Sonia Sotomayor and Diane Wood.

Don Surber speculates about a nominee who is “a Harvard-educated lawyer and I think she supported the ticket.”

This is one of the main reasons I supported John McCain, despite the fact that I didn’t really support John McCain. As Don says, “This should be a fine distraction for the summer.”

Changey Hopey Creepy Pledgey

The personality cult presidency of Barack Obama starts in just a few short hours, but some celebrities just couldn’t wait to pledge their allegiance, not to the flag, but to The One™

[myspace]http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=50632298[/myspace]

Granted, some of the things they mention are worthy goals that deserve peoples work and effort. I don’t deride the idea of doing good things or determining to make choices that improve your life and the lives of others, instead it is the eerie devotion to the idea that now with this president we can finally shape our country the way it should be.

I was talking to a co-worker yesterday about this phenomenon. He asked me what I thought drove the idea that Barack Obama could, simply by his election, bring about all of this change. I told him that I believe that a big part of that is the fact that our soon-to-be-trained-on-the-job President is such a blank slate with no record, no history, and no demonstrable core values, that it allows every individual to project on to him the things that they hope for. His candidacy and election remind me of the UPS Whiteboard commercials — you can write or erase whatever you want to get whatever you want and to make things look the way you want.

Frances Romero writing for Time said,

Remember when we used to pledge allegiance to a flag? Not in Barack Obama’s nation. On the eve of his grandly coordinated, $150 million Inaugural, celeb power couple Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore released a video full of their Hollywood friends and colleagues pledging to Obama to “be the change” that so many want to see with his incoming administration.

And concluded with this,

Overall, there’s some good stuff in here: Smile, mentor someone, drive slower, conserve gas. Steer clear of the last 20 seconds though. Fifty celebrities pledging in unison to serve our new President from an elaborate Brady Bunch grid, is creepy. A little cult-ish even.

Ace remarks,

If you get sick of it, skip to the end, to see a cultish chant to “serve our president” from all of the various B- and C- and F- list celebrities on display.

Remember when they put out a similar video after 9/11? Nope, me neither.

Curt at Flopping Aces observes,

Check out this video of the many ignorant celebrities who have over the last 8 years done whatever they could to tear down our President, stand in his way of making any progress to protect this country and its future, and insulted him at every chance.

[...]

The whole video is embarrassing but in the final moment when the image pulls out and eveyone of these nimrods is a part of the Obama portrait…then it became downright creepy. You just can’t describe this cult of personality any other way other then creepy and scary.

Andrew Breitbart sums it up well at his new Big Hollywood digs.

Remember this video: It is a instructive relic of the era of celebrity decadence and boutique anti-Republican activism under President Bush. It is a sickening display that they want fast and easy absolution for having comported themselves like ill-behaved children for eight difficult and war-torn years.

Good luck, President Obama. The rest of you can go to hell.

Years ago (this video is from 1969) Red Skelton offered a look a what the real pledge should mean. Take a look, especially if you watched the first one.

Countdown To Anointing

We are less than 36 hours away from the anointing coronation inauguration of Barack Obama.

Photo source: Baltimore Sun

As Michele Malkin point out:

US Flag Code: “The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature.”

Time for the On Job Training to begin.

May God have mercy on us all.

Obama Inauguration Speech — Advanced Copy!

With just a week to go, I am proud to announce that bRight & Early has obtained an advance copy of Barack Obama’s inauguration speech.

Four Two score and seven years ago our my father(s?) brought forth on this continent a new nation Messiah, conceived in Liberty Kenya, or Hawaii, or somewhere, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal, unless they’re rich or successful. And where they are not equal it is the job of the Government to make them equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war depression. Not The Great Depression, but the next closest thing. And I plan on testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated to capitalism and personal freedom, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war big open area in front of the Capitol building. We Many of you have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. your lives to The One. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground Me, anymore than you have already done. The brave men , living and dead, and women of the press who struggled here to get me elected, have consecrated it, far above our your poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say do here over the next four years, but it can never forget what they did I say here, for I am The One. It is for us the living Government, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work of total Government control which they who fought here have thus far so nobly in years past we could only partially advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion you have elected Me—that we here highly resolve that these dead ideas and ideals shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom–Where my wife, for the first time in her life, can be proud to be an American—and that government of the people Government, by the people elected who know better, for the people control of all power, shall not perish from the earth.

Something about it sounds familiar.

Obama Taking a Page from Gohmert?

President-elect Barack Obama is calling for tax cuts to be a large portion of an economic stimulus plan.

Obama is asking that tax cuts make up 40 percent of a stimulus package, the people say. The measure may be worth as much as $775 billion, a Democratic aide says, meaning tax cuts may constitute more than $300 billion of the legislation.

Making tax cuts such a large part of the stimulus may help win support from congressional Republicans. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said his party would support an immediate middle-class tax cut as part of any stimulus package.

“Republicans, by and large, think tax relief is a great way to get money to people immediately,” McConnell said yesterday on ABC’s “This Week.”

As always, the devil is in the details, and I, for one, will be curious to see what those details are. Still, tax cuts are a good thing, and part of this plan sounds very similar to Rep. Gohmert’s plan. From the Bloomberg article:

The plan would attempt to boost consumer demand by spending $140 billion on tax breaks worth $500 for individuals and $1,000 for couples, according to a House Democratic aide. The change would come by altering tax-withholding rules, rather than through a rebate check as with the previous stimulus plan enacted last year, so that workers would see an immediate increase in their take-home pay.

The $500 tax credit would apply to the first $8,100 of wages, meaning a worker who earns $24,400 a year and is paid twice a month would get about $60 extra per paycheck for four months.

The Gohmert plan calls for, “the suspension of employment and income taxes during the first two months of 2009.” (H.R. 7309)

As I said, we will have to wait and see the final plan, but including tax breaks is a good place to start.

BREAKING (but not surprising): Hillary Accepts SoS

Heard this just now on Hannity, checked Fox News and jumped over to the NYT.

WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton has decided to give up her Senate seat and accept the position of secretary of state, making her the public face around the world for the administration of the man who beat her for the Democratic presidential nomination, two confidants said Friday.

Hmmmm…

More later.