Obama’s Disingenuous Bi-Partisanship

On Friday, President Obama met with members of the House GOP at their annual three-day retreat in Maryland.  He made some opening remarks and then proceeded to conduct a question and answer session.  Mainstream Media and members of the left described the President’s “performance” as a return to his former campaign self and the three Stooges at MSNBC (Rachel Madcow as Larry, Racist Chris Matthews as Curly and Keith Olberdork as Moe) aired a special, dedicated to their analysis of the President’s appearance in Maryland where they basically declared Obama the winner and described how the President mopped the floor with the GOP – even without his trusty teleprompter.

I witnessed something quite different.  The President is not moving to the center and deciding that he would like to work in a bi-partisan way.  The State of the Union Address revealed that the President plans to move forward full steam ahead.  This meeting with the GOP backs that up as well.  The President was obtuse, answering questions in long rhetorical soundbites that left most wondering what the original question had been.  The President was defensive on many issues and stuttered and stammered to get his footing.

Obama claimed that he is open to GOP ideas.  He has said the same thing all year-long, even as he completely ignored GOP suggestions and he and his administration, along with the Democrats, have claimed time and time again that the Republicans are obstructionist and the party of “no” and have no ideas to offer.  A member of the GOP should have asked the President how the GOP managed to obstruct anything when they do not have enough votes to accomplish that – the Democrats obstructed the Democrats.  Mike Pence pointed this ignoring of GOP ideas out in this exchange with the President:

REP MIKE PENCE (R-IND.): Mr. President, a point of clarification.

What’s in the “Better Solutions” book are all the legislative proposals that were offered . . .

OBAMA: Oh, I understand. I’ve actually read your bills.

PENCE: . . . throughout 2009.

OBAMA: I understand.

PENCE: And so rest assured the summary document that you received is backed up by precisely the kind of detailed legislation that Speaker Pelosi and your administration have been busy ignoring for 12 months.

OBAMA: Well, Mike, hold on, hold on a second.

(APPLAUSE)

No, no, no, no, no. Hold on a second guys.  You know, Mike, I’ve read your legislation. I mean, I take a look at this stuff. And the good ideas we take.

But here — here’s the thing, here’s the thing, I guess, that all of us have to be mindful of. It can’t be all-or-nothing one way or the other, all right?  There’s eloquence for you.  “No, no, no, no, hold on guys…here–here’s the thing, here’s the thing.  As I said, he stuttered and stammered his way through this thing because he knows he is wrong and lying.  Confidence does not need to be defensive.

You — you — and what I mean by that is this. If we put together a stimulus package in which a third of it are tax cuts that normally you guys would support, and support for states and the unemployed and helping people stay on COBRA that your governors certainly would support, Democrat or Republican. And then you’ve got some infrastructure, and maybe there’s some things in there that you don’t like in terms of infrastructure, or you think the bill should have been $500 billion instead of $700 billion, or there’s this provision or that provision that you don’t like. In other words, Mike and the rest of you boneheads obstructing me, even if a bill is total garbage and full of waste, one bright shining light should get you on board to vote for this stuff.  The Porkulus Bill got its nickname for a reason: it was full of pork!  And has been proven an utter failure full of fraud.

If there’s uniform opposition because the Republican caucus doesn’t get 100 percent or 80 percent of what you want, then it’s going to be hard to get a deal done. That’s because that’s not how democracy works. The President of the United States does not know that he is the head of a Representative Republic.  He thinks this is a Democracy.

Something that many analysts did not pick up in the opening statements of the President set off some Marxist/Dictator warning bells.  We already had Obama call out the Supreme Court and attempt to embarrass them at the SOTU and he informed them that he was encouraging Congress to overturn their ruling to uphold the First Amendment with legislation.  The President later informed Congress that he would be issuing an Executive Order to set up the spending committee that would take over the Congressional power of deciding where spending should be allocated and cut.  So we have President getting Congress to take SCOTUS’ power and then the President taking Congress’ power leaving one person holding the bag.  And this brings me to this statement from Friday:

I’m ready and eager to work with anyone who is willing to proceed in the spirit of goodwill. But understand, if we can’t break free from partisan gridlock, if we can’t move past the politics of no, if resistance supplants constructive debate, I still have to meet my responsibilities as president. I’ve got to act for the greater good, because that, too, is a commitment that I have made. And that, too, is what the American people sent me to Washington to do.

The President just informed the nation that he is going to act for the greater good, which we know means his interpretation of good, even if he has to act without Congress.  We know that Congress will be in gridlock now with the election of Scott Brown and the GOP is aware that they cannot move forward any big government ideas without suffering the wrath of We The People.

Since the Massachusetts wake-up call, Obama’s only concession has been to issue a spending freeze in his 2011 budget.  This concession is not only temporary, but freezes spending at an exorbitant rate while not doing anything to reform entitlement programs like MediCare, MediCaid and Social Security, which are bankrupting the country.  And the next concession that the President will toss out to the little people is moving the 9/11 trials out of Manhatten.  This brings little solace to an American public outraged that non-citizens who took part in slaughtering 3,000 of our fellows were given Constitutional rights.  And the idea that this “circus” trial, that will give voice to these Jihadi terrorists to spill forth their bilge, is just going to be moved to another American city instead of back to GITMO insults our intelligence.

The President is putting on airs of being a willing participant in bi-partisanship, but the actions will prove that this is just another lie.  And so we will have to remind him again in November 2010 that We The People are the government.

After Lashing, Lobbyists Get Special Treatment

In Wednesday evening’s State of the Union Address, the President made the following comment that drew gasps and murmurs:

To do that, we have to recognize that we face more than a deficit of dollars right now.  We face a deficit of trust -– deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works that have been growing for years.  To close that credibility gap we have to take action on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue — to end the outsized influence of lobbyists; to do our work openly; to give our people the government they deserve.  (Applause.)

That’s what I came to Washington to do.  That’s why -– for the first time in history –- my administration posts on our White House visitors online.  That’s why we’ve excluded lobbyists from policymaking jobs, or seats on federal boards and commissions.

The reason for the reaction from the chamber were the facts.  The President was lying.  Not only does he have lobbyists and former lobbyists on commissions and boards, but many of his advisors and cabinet members fall into that description.  I have counted over one hundred personally and most people researching the influence of lobbyists on the Obama administration place the count in the forties.  The President went even further, suggesting in his comments that the government would do its work openly and offered as an example, the move the White House made to place the names of visitors to the White House on their website.  He failed to mention that this came after a Freedom of Information Act request.

But even more appalling is the revelation yesterday that K Street lobbyists have been invited to participate in a series of teleconferences hosted by the Treasury Department.  Raise your hands if you think these teleconferences will be behind closed doors.  The Hill wrote, “The Treasury Department on Thursday morning invited selected individuals to ‘a series of conference calls with senior Obama administration officials to discuss key aspects of the State of the Union address.’  The invitation, which went to a variety of stakeholders, was sent by Fred Baldassaro, a senior adviser at the Treasury Department’s Office of Business Affairs and Public Liaison.  The invitation stated, ‘The White House is encouraging you to participate in these calls and will have a question and answer session at the end of each call. As a reminder, these calls are not intended for press purposes.’

So obviously, these meetings will not be public and these insiders will be asked to have, as the President put it, “outsized influence.”  By the way, is the term “outsized” really a word?

This tactic of eviscerating and then seeking recommendations from “bad elements”  is a familiar one for the White House.  The President attacked banks and then asked them to help the economy by lending again.  Now he seeks guidance from these lobbyists after lashing out at them.

Live Blogging Obama’s 1st State Of The Union

NOTE:  I am live blogging the President’s State of the Union Address, so please refresh for updates.  Add comments as you like and I will approve them as we go.

I know some bloggers like to play drinking games with the President’s speeches, but I am a teetotaler so forget the drinking, let’s just bet.  Besides, everybody would be drunk in the first five minutes.  Bets:  How many times the President will say, “unprecendented”, “let me be clear”, “I, me, myself” and how many times will he blame Bush?  Bonus bet:  I bet we do not hear the word “cuts” tonight.  Will Joe Wilson yell “You lie” again?

Michelle Obama enters the hall…and then here comes the cabinet – where are the czars?  The President is late to his own party.  Isn’t it bad enough that he is rumored to be talking for 75 minutes tonight?  And the Illustrious One enters – six minutes late.  Everybody rushes to be touched by his Excellence.  All the whistling reminds me of people whistling past the graveyard.  PlastiGirl pees her pants as she announces The One.

Oh my God, he just mentioned the Constitution!  Does he know what that is?  What’s with the history lesson – TOTUS is laying it on thick.  He is discussing the testing we are under.  You fail, Mr. President!  He’s reminding us that he acted immediately and aggressively and is claiming that we are past the worst.  He understands everyone’s anxiety.  He ran for President because of our struggles.  He talks about those letters from children again that he reads every night – what a liar!

The chance to get ahead is destroyed by government, but the President does not realize that.  I could care less about all this fluff.  Oh, the President just said he has never been more hopeful than he is tonight.  He is using “we” like crazy.  He must have gotten my memo.  Now he falls into his populist tone telling us he hated bailing out the banks.  He claims unemployment might have doubled if not for his actions.  Really?

He is reminding us again of all the actions he took like expanding unemployment insurance that is killing small business.  Now he claims that he cut taxes for everybody.  Memo:  Wait until you have to pay taxes on those cuts.  The President just said a whopper: They didn’t raise taxes one dime on anybody.  How about that cigarette tax?

OMG!!  He announces Porkulus 2 and as I suspected he is calling it a Jobs Bill.  Thirty billion of TARP is going towards this plan.  TARP is now officially a slush fund!  Oh goody, the President just reminded me he is coming here to Tampa tomorrow.  He is going to unveil the SunRail debacle – a high speed rail line from Tampa to Orlando.  No one will be riding and this will be such a waste.  Charlie Crist is planning to be somewhere else tomorrow.

The President says we shouldn’t wait or come to a standstill.  China is not waiting after all.  This is an indication that he is firing ahead on all cylinders for his Marxist Utopia.  He is talking about how uncomfortable this will be and that we need to get serious.  I’m sure these Americans out her looking for work are not serious at all.  He wants to protect us from recklessness.  He is the reckless one!  He points fingers at lobbyists as if they are his enemies.  He has 100 in his administration.

Cap and Trade (Crap and Tax) is not dead for the President.  He’s talking about off-shore drilling and clean coal technology.  When did he start thinking those were good ideas.  Yes, he just confirmed that there will be a climate bill.  He congratulated the House and puts pressure on Senate.  He just said the “overwhelming evidence” for climate change.  And then he said “even if you doubt…”  Crap & Tax is back from the dead and on life support!

Obama now highlights the competition they have started in education.  He urges the Senate to revitalize community colleges.  This bill will make college more affordable with a $10,000 credit to families.  So we are paying for other people’s college.  And he suggests that only 10% of income will have to go to repaying college loans and after 20 years whatever is not paid off will be forgiven.  And if you go into public service (aka join his Civilian Corp) your loans are forgiven after 10 years.

Obama highlights Michelle Obama and how she is going to tackle childhood obesity this year.  He says, “She gets embarrassed.”  Yeah, I’m sure she hates the limelight!  He claims over the next two decades, they will bring deficit down by one trillion dollars.  The President just claimed that We The people ask “What’s in it for me?”  Yeah, that is the American spirit.  He is so clueless!

Finally, he gets around to blaming Bush.  There was a surplus back in 2000 and then he does the regular run down of the “facts” that he found waiting for him like two unfunded wars, a huge deficit and an economic crisis that he just had to do something about.  Now he is talking about the government needing to tighten its belt.  So tonight he proposes specific steps to start in 2011 by freezing spending for three years.  We already knew this was coming and we know that this is to freeze in the funding he has set up – it cuts nothing!  He’s talking about going through the budget line by line and cutting.  Didn’t he promise to do this the first time he addressed the Congress?

Obama is ridiculing the idea of tax cuts for wealthy and getting rid of regulation.  He blames that for the crisis and says that that is what we did for eight years.  Obama just used the term “common sense” as if he knows what that is.  And now the President is going after the SCOTUS decision to back up the First Amendment and allow corporations to put funds towards campaigns.  So I guess we need to get this back to fair where only the unions get to open the flood gates.  Corporations have been documented as spending nearly 50/50 on Democrats and Republicans while unions spend 90% on Democrats.

The President claims that there should not be perpetual campaigns.  I guess he does not realize that he is conducting campaigning as he speaks.  Michelle Malkin wants our unspent Porkulus money back.  The President just lectured Republicans about being only about “No”.  he plans on meeting with them in the coming weeks.  My suggestion to Republicans is to greet him with the same closed door that the Democrats offered them.

PlastiGirl has blinked far more than I thought was capable for her facial muscles encased in plastic.  CSPAN has focused mainly on the Democrat side of the floor.  President O just said all troops out of Iraq by end of August.  “This war is ending,” he says and “All our troops are coming home.”  He wants to make sure our troops know they have all our respect.  Like he really means it – ha!  Oh great, Michelle and Biden are going to work together to support military families.  I guess those families will be left in the gutter.

He mentions the nuclear weapon crap again and mentions Reagan and JFK as well.  He attempts to sound tough on nations seeking to get nuclear weapons and claims that the international community is more united than ever.  I guess he thinks if he says something, then it is so.  Because last I heard, China is not on board with sanctions against Iran.

Obama pulls the Haiti card and reminds us that if people are pulled out of poverty and educated they won’t be driven by crimes of hate.  Like the Undie Bomber…no wait…the 9/11 terrorists…no wait…the Ft. Hood Murderer…no wait…oh well.

I do have to applaud the President on finally allowing gay people to serve openly in the military, but will it really happen.  I won’t hold my breathe.  OMG…he softens his voice and his mind floats back to his slogan of “Change We Can Believe In”.  He reminds us that he never said it would be easy.  He is right about that because the American people will not be put under the yoke of slavery to the government, which is exactly where he wants us to be.

He just reminded us that he won’t quit and that we will carry the dream forward.  Who’s dream – his?  And finally, the torture is over after an hour and fifteen minutes!  We know for sure that he is not changing course.  Now we know what we must do.

The New “Populist” Tone

Tonight during the State of the Union Address, the President is expected to continue his populist tone that he has adopted since Scott Brown was elected to fill the Senate seat held by Teddy Kennedy for 47 years.  (Join me back here while I live blog the event.)  My question is whether the President has really adopted such a tone.  The pundits are telling us this, but I certainly do not hear that tone.  Last Friday, the President paid a visit to Ohio and gave a speech in which he repeatedly said “I” and used the word “fight” over twenty times.  A dictator (narcisstic elitist) uses the term “I” almost exclusively.  A leader uses the word “we”.  And since the Scott Brown result obviously revealed that Obama’s policies are not the direction the country wishes take, what exactly is he fighting?  Sounds like he is going to continue to push his agenda to me.

And who does Obama think he is fooling by claiming that he is with us against the banks and the corporations dishing out big bonuses?  I believe it was the government who bailed out the banks and companies so that they could pass around big bonuses and freeze lending.  Obama voted for these bailouts and happily took over companies, even though he tried to tell us he did not want to run banks and car companies.  At every turn, Obama has been working against the policies that would truly help the economy and rebuild business.  His actions have lead people to believe that he is either stupid or ruining the economy on purpose.

Tonight the President may attempt to sound like he is part of We The People and that he is with us, but I will be listening to the undertone and key words and phrases for what the truth really is because this President often reveals his hand.  Sometimes it is in what the President does not say that we hear the truth.  Any suggestion of more stimulus and spending will debunk his promise to freeze federal spending.  Any suggestion that he has kept his campaign promises will prove that he is lying because no one can deny that the President has kept only one promise: to fundamentally change America.  Every other promise has been left on the waste pile.

All this talk of a populist tone is ridiculous to me anyway.  I want to hear the real deal with integrity from a politician.  I know, I am laughing my butt off too at that suggestion.  I am tired of a politician telling me what I want to hear, rather than telling me who they really are and what they truly value.  And as I always say, I do not listen to words, I watch actions because that is where reality lies.  The President’s actions tell me that he has an agenda to create a Marxist utopia and We The People are not going to stop him.

United Kingdom Goes to Severe Alert

The United Kingdom has raised their alert level to “severe”, which means a terrorist attack is highly likely.  Do they know something that we do not?  Our President has not raised our level and has not addressed this development.  Threat levels in the U.K. are decided by the Security Service (MI5) and the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC).  These organizations gather information through intelligence in the U.K. and abroad.  This tells me that they have information that a terrorist group has become very active.

U.K. Home Secretary Alan Johnson said the security level was raised to get people in Britain to be more vigilant, but that no specific threats had been received.  None of their intelligence has caused them to suspect an attack is imminent.

The Associated Press reports:

Friday’s changes came days after Britain suspended direct flights to Yemen’s capital in response to the growing threat from Al Qaeda-affiliated militants based in that country. Prime Minister Gordon Brown said his government also was creating a new terrorist no-fly list, and targeting specific airline passengers for tougher security checks.

The measures followed a discussion between Brown and President Barack Obama on Tuesday. They match similar moves made by U.S. authorities last week to enhance security at airports and on planes, as intelligence officials warned that Al Qaeda’s branch in Yemen was continuing to plot attacks on the United States.

The stepped-up security in the U.S. included more air marshals on flights to and within the U.S. and additional screening at airports around the world.

Brown said Britain and other nations face a sharply growing threat from Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists based in Yemen and an area of north Africa that includes nations such as Somalia, Nigeria, Sudan and Ethiopia.

Officials and analysts say Britain’s new alert level could be related to the emergence of a steady stream of threat information since the thwarted Christmas Day attack.

Undie Bomber Not Interrogated By Intelligence

It would be hard for me to argue that even had the Undie Bomer been interrogated by Intelligence that it would have been “intelligent” when being conducted by the O administration.  The nation was informed on Wednesday, via Senate hearings, that the FBI conducted some criminal focused interrogations, but nothing that would have benefited this nation in the War on Terrorism.  I have a quick common sense question here.  We were informed by Obama that one reason he stopped enhanced interrogations is because the information gleaned is unreliable.  So how in the world are we expected to believe that this waste of skin who just torched himself and is in pain and probably medicated heavily gave reliable information in the brief window that the FBI had before his lawyer showed up?  Yeah, that lawyer we are paying for.

We also discovered through these hearings that the HIG (High Value Interrogation Group) that Obama planned to form and bring into the White House to conduct future interrogations after he stopped the “torturings” has not even been set up.  Are we really expected to believe that this incompetent paper tiger in the White House cares about our security and is serious about terrorism?  Yeah, he sure seems serious to me.

And rumor has it that none of the people in charge of this nations security were consulted on any decisions around the Undie Bomber and that Attorney General Eric Holder is responsible for all of these actions.  He should be fired…yesterday.

Erroll Southers In Line With DHS Report

Several months ago the Department of Homeland Security, under the direction of Janet Napalitano, released a report that accused tea party attendees, veterans, anti-government and anti-tax types of being dangerous right-wing extremist domestic terrorists.  Now the President has nominated a man to the top of the Transportation Security Administration that seems to agree with Napalitano and the rest of her ilk.  Erroll Southers has a past that is distasteful in which he used FBI resources illegally for personal use.  And now he has made a claim that is outrageous.

In a 2008 video interview with the Videojug.com website, Errol Southers was asked, “Which home-grown terrorist groups pose the greatest danger to the U.S.?”

Southers answered: “Most of the domestic groups that we have to pay attention to here are white supremacist groups. They’re anti-government and in most cases anti-abortion. They are usually survivalist-type in nature, identity orientated. If you recall, Buford Furrow came to Los Angeles in, I believe, it was 1999. When he went to three different Jewish institutions, museums, and then wound up shooting people at a children’s community center, then shooting a Filipino postal worker later on.  Matthew Hale, who’s the Pontifex Maximus of the World Church of the Creator out of Illinois, and Ben Smith, who went on a shooting spree in three different cities where he killed a number of African Americans and Jews and Asians that day.  Those groups are groups that claim to be extremely anti-government and Christian-identity oriented.”

So Southers is claiming that this group he described is a Christian group.  And he wanted to stress the anti-government part as well, but I am sure that it was not a swipe to members of the Tea Party Movement.  The fact is, that this group that these men belong to – World Church of the Creator – is an atheistic organization and is anti-Christian.  These claims are made on the “church’s” website.  The Anti-Defamation League describes the group as non-believers in eternal life and God.  The group changed its name to The Creativity Movement recently.

Southers also claimed that “we will never win” a war on terrorism in the permanent sense, but we can focus on trying to “contain” terrorism.  This is really the person we want in charge of our airline safety.  Southers should fit in just fine with the rest of the Obama administration that is in denial about the War on Terrorism.

Haiti

I have not commented on the devastating disaster that has completely destroyed a country that already was sitting on the precipice because I was not sure exactly what my thoughts were on the situation.  The main and foremost thought is just an utter sense of sorrow for a people, particularly the children, that find themselves struggling to survive in the aftermath of a 7.0 earthquake that has destroyed nearly every building on the island.  Hundreds of thousands are presumed dead and millions are homeless.  This is an opportunity for humanity to reveal their truly charitable sides and most people have done just that.

But there are several questions that must be answered.  The first question is what is America’s responsibility in this Haiti tragedy?  The President has promised $100 million dollars in aid with a further promise of more to come in the future.  How exactly is a nation in the middle of a horrible economy, in debt for decades to come and struggling to gain financial stability suppose to fulfill that promise?  And how can we be sure that the money is not wasted?  The government has never collected large sums of money without wasting most of it as we have seen with the Porkulus Bill, Social Security, MediCare, MediCaid, Amtrack, Omnibus Bills and etc.  A corrupt country like Haiti has never received funds that have not been used to benefit the government rather than the people.  Even many charities have proved in the past to be irresponsible like The Red Cross, a group that will never get another dime from myself.

Why is it that America is always expected to bail everyone else out and yet the world continues to hate us for the illusion that we are prosperous?  (Yes, it is an illusion when considering we are a debtor nation.)  We give millions to the United Nations.  Is this not the U.N.’s place to secure these devastated nations and provide relief?  Charities were already on the ground in Haiti and are the organizations that make the difference.  Why does the President send funds that come from taxpayers when Americans already will give until it hurts to charities for Haitian Relief?  This merely becomes a political play for the President.

Is it the responsibility of our military to be “Meals On Wheels” for these people?  I think it is charitable of our nation to lend the efforts of our military in the first couple of weeks to help keep peace and distribute aid until more infrastructure can be formed, but this Haitian scenario will play out with our troops there for months and possibly years as we again try to nation build.

What is the goal for Haiti now?  This nation has been a nation that the world has continued to prop up.  They do nothing for themselves to bring in revenue and one corrupt government after another runs the country holding the people down while it lives high on the hog.  The stark difference between the Presidential palace and the sheds that make up the housing units for most Haitians is an example of this corruption.  The absolute deviation between the Dominican Republic and Haiti, which share the same island, reveals the difference between an entitlement state and a more prosperous state.  Haiti has become the welfare case for every nation that cares.  Many have ridiculed China and India for their paltry donations of one million dollars each to the recovery effort, but perhaps they know better.  Well, maybe in India’s case , but China is an example of Communist callousness.

If I were President, and I obviously will never be in that position due to my political incorrectness alone, I would send a goodwill offering of $10 million dollars along with military support for one month.  I would not encourage Americans to give, but merely thank them for the generosity I already know they are demonstrating.  This asinine effort of sending former presidents Bush and Clinton out to wrangle donations is just another political play.  Let us keep politics out of this.  And the upcoming Hollywood Extravaganza will make me positively ill.  I commend Hollywood-types like Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Sandra Bullock for their million dollar donations, but do the American people really need these self-absorbed libtards begging us to send money to their charities of choice?  As I said, the Red Cross will never get another dime from me, nor will Unicef or anything connected to the United Nations.

The best thing we can do for the Haitian people is ignore Pat Robertson and his lunacy and pray for these people.  Many of them are believers and only God can really raise these people above their circumstances.  No amount of money can fix what is broken in Haiti – history has proven that for decades.

Unions Ink Deal On ObamaCare In Dead Of Night

The transparency of the Obama administration continues as yet another deal is inked while America sleeps.  Big Labor came in swinging when it was revealed that the final healthcare reform tax and spend bill would contain a “cadillac tax” to help pay for the legislation.  This tax would have hit union members hard, many of whom are middle class workers.  The President completely supported the tax initially because the hard truth that someone has to pay for this bloated government control measure was obvious.

The President has been meeting with labor union heads at the White House for the past few days and finally reached an agreement last night around midnight.  And another payoff can be added to list as well as a refiguring of how much this measure will cost.  I had thought that perhaps the unions would swallow this tax in exchange for a Card Check deal, but apparently they are getting something better.  Union members will not have to pay tax on their plans until 2018 and at that time, the insurance exchange will be open for union members to join.  But that is not all because anyone with common sense can see what is happening here.  Until 2018, the unions are going to look like a real good option to join for workers who have cadillac plans but do not belong to unions.  Now they will want to join in order to get the exemption.  This appears to be a win-win for everybody except America.

Democratic Representative Joe Courtney, a leading critic of the Senate tax, said “Right now I think that this is a real uphill battle.  There’s a high degree of skepticism about it.”  The revised deal raises the tax’s income threshold and excludes supplemental coverage for dental and vision.  There was word that talks are still underway because some unions are not happy with this deal either.  And this still will have to get Senate approval where the “cadillac tax” was added.

One thing is for sure, the unions got this President in office and have supported ObamaCare to the point of violence, so he owes them on everything.  This is why Andy Stern, head of SEIU, practically has his own room at the White House because he has visited so much.  We live in an Oligarchy with many pulling the strings of the President Puppet and the labor unions are just one of those groups.  This is why we cannot fail in the 2010 elections.  We must start closing the doors on these special interest groups that run this country.

Infrastructure For Obama’s Brownshirts

The President has signed another Executive Order that has flown under the radar in the same way that the Interpol Executive Order did a few weeks ago.  This new Executive Order appears to be setting up the infrastructure for Obama’s Civilian Corp. or something I have dubbed for the past year and a half: Obama’s Brownshirts.

This Executive Order, known as “Executive Order Establishing Council of Governors”, sets up the framework for the use of federal troops and combines state and federal agencies within the Department of Defense. This order was signed yesterday and enables the federal and state governments to work together to protect the nation from hazards.  This sounds like a good idea on the surface, but not when considering that the lines defined by the Tenth Amendment are already blurred and when considering that the federal government is busily building a Marxist Utopia.

The Council’s responsibilities include reviewing matters that involve the National Guard of the various States; homeland security; civil support; synchronization and integration of State and Federal military activities in the United States; and other matters of mutual interest pertaining to National Guard, homeland security, and civil support activities.  The council will be made up of ten governors selected by the President to serve for two years.  Members from the federal government will be included as well and will be represented by the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, the Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement, the Assistant Secretary of Defence for Homeland Defence and Americas’ Security Affairs, the U.S. Northern Command Commander, the Commandant of the Coast Guard, and the Chief of the National Guard Bureau.

The Press release of the executive order is as follows:

The White House Office of the Press SecretaryFor Immediate Release January 11, 2010

EXECUTIVE ORDER ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COUNCIL OF GOVERNORS: By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 1822 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-181), and in order to strengthen further the partnership between the Federal government and State governments to protect our Nation and its people and property, it is hereby ordered as follows:

Section 1. Council of Governors.(a) There is established a Council of Governors (Council).  The Council shall consist of 10 State Governors appointed by the President (Members), of whom no more than five shall be of the same political party. The term of service for each Member appointed to serve on the Council shall be 2 years, but a Member may be reappointed for additional terms. (b) The President shall designate two Members, who shall not be members of the same political party, to serve as Co-Chairs of the Council.

Sec. 2. Functions. The Council shall meet at the call of the Secretary of Defense or the Co-Chairs of the Council to exchange views, information, or advice with the Secretary of Defense; the Secretary of Homeland Security; the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism; the Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement; the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas’ Security Affairs; the Commander, United States Northern Command; the Chief, National GuardBureau; the Commandant of the Coast Guard; and other appropriate officials of the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, and appropriate officials of other executive departments or agencies as may be designated by the Secretary of Defense or the Secretary of Homeland Security.Such views, information, or advice shall concern: (a) matters involving the National Guard of the variousStates; (b) homeland defense; (c) civil support; more (OVER) 2(d) synchronization and integration of State and Federal military activities in the United States; and (e) other matters of mutual interest pertaining toNational Guard, homeland defense, and civil support activities.

Sec. 3. Administration. (a) The Secretary of Defense shall designate an ExecutiveDirector to coordinate the work of the Council. (b) Members shall serve without compensation for theirwork on the Council. However, Members shall be allowed travelexpenses, including per diem in lieu of subsistence, asauthorized by law. (c) Upon the joint request of the Co-Chairs of the Council, the Secretary of Defense shall, to the extent permitted by law and subject to the availability of appropriations, provide the Council with administrative support, assignment or detail of personnel, and information as may benecessary for the performance of the Council’s functions. (d) The Council may establish subcommittees of the Council. These subcommittees shall consist exclusively of Members of the Council and any designated employees of a Member with authority to act on the Member’s behalf, as appropriate to aid the Council in carrying out its functions under this order. (e) The Council may establish a charter that is consistent with the terms of this order to refine further its purpose, scope, and objectives and to allocate duties, as appropriate, among members.

Sec. 4. Definitions.  As used in this order: (a) the term “State” has the meaning provided in paragraph (15) of section 2 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002(6 U.S.C. 101(15)); and (b) the term “Governor” has the meaning provided inparagraph (5) of section 102 of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5122(5)). (a) Nothing in this order shall be construed to impair orotherwise affect: (1) the authority granted by law to adepartment, agency, or the head thereof; or(2) functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary,administrative, or legislative proposals. (b) This order shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability ofappropriations.Sec. 5. General Provisions. more 3 (c) This order is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

BARACK OBAMATHE WHITE HOUSE, January 11, 2010.