The State of the Yawn-ion

A lot of political pundits make a lot of money talking to an every-shrinking audience. Most Americans these days simply can’t stand politics, and after watching Tuesday’s State of the Union speech and the Republican response, it’s easy to understand why.

President Obama’s speech was empty calories, a greatest hits record from a local band that never had a hit. I had to check my DVR to make sure I hadn’t accidentally replayed a previous year’s speech. I hadn’t, but I still want to know where to go to get those two hours of my life back.

The buzz leading up to the speech was about how the president was prepared to circumvent Congress and the constitutional limits on executive branch power and rule by decree. On this, he did not disappoint.

He told the world he had “a pen and a phone” and would use them to impose his will on the country and rile up his army of paid progressive protesters.

“America does not stand still - and neither will I,” he said on Tuesday. “So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that's what I'm going to do.”

While I’d love to have the unilateral power to swipe a magic Bic pen and impose a pro-liberty agenda for a president I support, I wouldn’t because I oppose fascism. Progressives, of course, have no such constraint.

But playing by their rules and interpretation of the Constitution, if President Obama can act unilaterally AND he has all these wonderful executive orders he could sign to stimulate the economy and create jobs, why hasn’t he? He’s been president for five years, and people are suffering . What kind of monster would have a solution and the ability to act, but wouldn’t?

Of course, the president can’t act unilaterally, and he doesn’t have any ideas that haven’t been tried and failed. But he has to pretend he has these magical, infomercial-worthy miracle arrows in his quiver to maintain his anemic support. If low-information voters believe President Obama has the cure for what ails them, and he’s only being stopped from doing it by Republicans, he bolsters Democrats’ chances in November.

But it’s hard to bluff when you’ve been awarded the “Lie of the Year,” especially when there are nearly 6 million walking, talking victims of that lie. President Obama’s credibility has been destroyed by his own words and a “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon” reality that most Americans know someone, or know someone who knows someone, who’s been directly harmed by his lie. Trust doesn’t have a reset button.

This reality won’t stop the president from acting unilaterally. It’s just that his actions won’t have a positive impact on peoples’ lives or the economy. It will be regulations on CO2 emissions as a payoff to environmental extremists, for example. They won’t create jobs, and they’ll drive up energy costs, which hurts the poor most. But they placate his radical base, which he needs come November. Constitution be damned, he’s got an election to win, and pandering is all he has left.

One specific item he said he’d act on unilaterally is called “MyRA,” a “savings” plan for all Americans. He said, “I will direct the Treasury to create a new way for working Americans to start their own retirement savings: MyRA. It's a new savings bond that encourages folks to build a nest egg. MyRA guarantees a decent return with no risk of losing what you put in.”

For decades progressives have been looking to get their hands on the trillions in IRAs and 401(k)s beyond their grasp. These “savings bonds” are their “in” to that pool of money. A savings bond is a loan to government, so what he is proposing is even more debt. But more importantly, this “feel good, sound good” idea likely will add additional trillions to the nation’s unfunded liabilities. Where will the money for that “decent return” come from? Magic?

The speech was a colossal waste of time. The only memorable moment was when he rightly praised Sergeant First Class Cory Remsburg, an Army Ranger injured in Afghanistan. The rest was, to put it politely, worthless. He offered nothing new, reiterated the progressive dream of a cradle-to-grave hand of government in people’s lives – from pre-K to retirement. He essentially resurrected the aimless Julia of his campaign propaganda.

The only thing more forgettable was the official GOP response from Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state.

I’m sure Rodgers is a nice person, but the only takeaway I got from her speech was that she has kids and she loves them. Honestly, that’s all I could remember within two minutes of it ending. It was all empathy and no solutions, no alternate vision offered. She saw the problems facing America, and she rightly pointed out that the president has no plan or desire to do anything positive about them, and that was it.

Judging by the official response, the GOP establishment wants Republicans to run on the fact they aren’t Democrats. Even that difference was not evident in the words of Rodgers.

Moreover, “They’re wrong, and we’re not them” is not a winning campaign slogan. Were the Tea Party not new blood being pump into that dying body like Keith Richards in Canada, the GOP would be as worthless as the Democrats.

I have hope for November, I have hope for the country, but none of it was justified on broadcast television Tuesday night. The main stage show was a Democrat throwing fish to the progressive barking seals in Congress, who applauded on cue, and a stale GOP reply that almost made the president’s speech seems substantive.

In spite of the best efforts of those in leadership of both parties charged with keeping it so, the state of our union is still strong…at least for now.

Vote-crazed Obama's SOTU said he’d act unilaterally on a cockamamie “savings plan" intended to dupe "all Americans"---called MyRA.

WORDS HAVE MEANING Boobamba said, “I will direct the Treasury to create a new way for working Americans to start their own retirement savings: MyRA. It's a new savings bond that encourages folks to build a nest egg. MyRA guarantees a decent return with no risk of losing what you put in.”

REALITY CHECK: For decades progressives have been looking to get their hands on the trillions in IRAs and 401(k)s beyond their grasp. These “savings bonds” are their “in” to that pool of money. A savings bond is a loan to government, so what Boobamba is proposing is adding more debt to the $17 trillion debt he created.

.... Boobamba's “feel good, sound good” MyRa thingy will add additional untraceable trillions to the nation’s unfunded liabilities. Where will the untraceable money for that “decent return” come from?

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Boobamba tripped himself up when he said he would direct The US Treasury" to act on this. P> Don't be fooled by the Chicago conmen----MyRa is another financial boondoggle on the order of the stimulus and Obamacare.

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ONCE UPON A TIME, OBAMA'S COS EMANUEL HAD TWO JOBS Soon as they occupied the WH, Obama and the Chicago con artists (a) took control of the US Census; (b) Obama placed his COS Rahm Emanuel in control of the US Dept of the Treasury.

PAUSE TO REFLECT Remember Obama had tight control of Treasury; Obama calculatedly placed his then-COS Rahm Emanuel in a dual role.......in the WH and at Treasury. Obama had a stranglehold on Treasury via COS Rahm Emanuel's dual role

STROLL DOWN MEMORY LANE Soon as they occupied the WH, Obama and the Chi/cons (a) took control of the US Census; (b) Obama placed his COS Rahm Emanuel in control of the US Dept of the Treasury (including the conservative-suppressing IRS). Read on.

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THE SMOKING GUN---WSJ REPORT--On Jan 20, 2009 Timothy Geithner was appointed Obama's Secy of the Treasury. But within three weeks, the Obama White House tightened its grip on Treasury. Obama put his COS, Rahm Emanuel, in charge of Treasury---Rahm Emanuel's dual role was an unusual move.

When he got to Treasury, WH COS Rahm Emanuel was so involved in the inner workings that the phrase "Rahm wants it" had become an unofficial mantra among subservient govt staffers, prostrate in obeisance, scurrying to accede to Rahm's wishes, according to Treasury government officials. Reported by WSJ / 05/31/09

More here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124113406528875137.html

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Obama's trillion dollar stimulus scam is a huge unreported story. Makes Madoff look like a piker. In his new book "Extortion" author Peter Schweitzer writes about Obo, Holder (and other insiders), using the Justice Dept "and assorted govt agencies" to extort and steal billions of untraceable dollars.... read on:

EXCERPT---FOURTEEN TRILLION DOLLARS Behind The Real Size of the Bailout; A guide to the abbreviations, acronyms, and obscure programs that make up the $14 trillion federal bailout of Wall Street
SOURCE motherjones.com
Mon Dec. 21, 2009 12:23 PM PST

The price tag for the Wall Street bailout is popularly put at $700 billion—---the actual size of TARP--the Troubled Assets Relief Program. But TARP is just the best known program in an array of more than 30 overseen by Treasury Department and Federal Reserve that have paid out or put aside untraceable money to bail out financial firms and inject money into the markets.

To get a sense of the size of the real $14 trillion bailout, see MJ chart at web site. A guide to the pieces of the puzzle includes massive untraceable Treasury Department bailout programs.

Money Market Mutual Fund: In September 2008, the Treasury controlled by Obama/Emanuel announced that it would insure the holdings of publicly offered money market mutual funds. According to the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), these guarantees could have potentially cost the federal government more than $3 trillion [PDF].

Public-Private Investment Fund: This joint Treasury-Federal Reserve program bought toxic assets from banks and brokerages—as much as $5 billion of assets per firm. According to SIGTARP, the government's potential exposure from the PPIF is between $500 million and $1 trillion [PDF].

TARP: As part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the Treasury controlled by Obama/Emanuel made loans to or investments more than 750 banks and financial institutions. $650 billion has been paid out (not including HAMP; see below). As of December 21, 2009, $117.5 billion of that has been repaid.

Government-sponsored enterprise (GSE) stock purchase: The Treasury controlled by Obama/Emanuel bought $200 million in preferred stock from Fannie Mae and another $200 million from Freddie Mac [PDF] to show that they "will remain viable entities critical to the functioning of the housing and mortgage markets."

GSE mortgage-backed securities purchase: Under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008, the Treasury controlled by Obama/Emanuel may buy mortgage-backed securities from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. According to SIGTARP, these purchases could cost as much as $314 billion ---SNIP---.

LONG READ---go to web site to read more and checkout the shocking financial charts.

SOURCE http://motherjones.com/politics/2009/12/behind-real-size-bailout

“Most Americans these days simply can’t stand politics ...”

And therein lies the heart of our current problems!

The Framers gave us a system of government run by the people; to self-govern by choosing our own representatives. (Note that I did not write “our own rulers” because WE are the rulers, not them!)

What has happened, sadly, is that we don’t feel we have the time (or stomach) to hammer out a union contract, or specs for a new attack helicopter, or work out a treaty with Lower Slobovia. So we let somebody else handle that crap while we focus on our jobs and lives.

This has led to the rise of a “political class” and we no longer monitor or discipline as we should. We don’t trust them but we let them keep the job because we don’t want to become fundraising whores or endure the savage media humiliation that is part of running for office.

To fix what’s wrong with our country, we need to participate again in our own governance, as The Framers intended. We need to self-govern again.

Unfortunately, we just need to dive into the cesspool that we’ve allowed the political class (and media) to create. Oh boy.

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