The American Spectator

Stephanie| 6.14.10 @ 6:13AM

At the risk of repeating a worn out phrase,
EMPTY SUIT

Alan Brooks| 6.14.10 @ 10:37AM

You made your bed. With all the great conservatives in America, the GOP chose McCain.
That's not gloating, it is sad; sad only a dozen years after Dole the GOP made the same mistake-- like dogs returning to their own vomit.

loulou| 6.14.10 @ 12:00PM

We did NOT choose McCain.
The Democrat cross voters did. And the RNC.

BackToBasics| 6.14.10 @ 6:25PM

Exactly, and I will continue to vote third party like I did in '08 until the Republican and RNC leadership gets serious and changes the rules in each state that allows cossssover voting and also starts backing the real conservatives we need and not the ultra-capitalists and mushy middle people we've been getting like both Bush's, McCain and Dole. We'd be in almost the same condition now in the country if McCain were president, only he'd be getting ALL of the blame for the country's troubles. I'd rather see Obam get the blame. His policies are bigger failures than even Bush's and it's good that the Democrat's increasing communist-leaning policies are shown for the failures that they are. If McCain were the president he would also go mostly down a socialist path to try to win the love of the Democrats like he always does. Thus we'd be in about the same place as we are now and the press would dump all our problems on him and our mostly politically ill-educated public would believe it was his fault rather than socialist and communist policies that are failing.

DT| 6.14.10 @ 10:28PM

Could not agree more. The stupidity of the American voter can never be under estimated

joev| 6.15.10 @ 4:53AM

First thing to do when we retake the Congress and the WH is repeal the 19th Amendment.

The American woman, by overwhelmingly voting for the jackass in chief have proved they do not deserve to have this precious right. They are simply not smart enough to handle the reponsibility.

Maggie| 6.15.10 @ 9:03AM

joev: Some of us are, and many of us did not!!

A.M. Mallett| 6.15.10 @ 1:57PM

Demo plant.

Radegunda| 6.15.10 @ 8:14PM

There's are other demographic groups that voted for the "jackass in chief" by wider margins than women did. Will you contemplate taking the vote away from those groups first?

scythe| 6.15.10 @ 9:50PM

Got that right!! They are too susceptible and emotional. Forty years of marinating in the Marxist snake oil known as "feminism" has rotted whatever brains God gave them.

scythe| 6.15.10 @ 9:50PM

Got that right!! They are too susceptible and emotional. Forty years of marinating in the Marxist snake oil known as "feminism" has rotted whatever brains God gave them.

GE| 6.15.10 @ 11:59AM

Stupidity and gulliability are not the same thing. The American people were conned because he said what they really wanted to hear. Granted, there are stupid people out there and they, also,can be led around by the nose. But, his Snake Oil sermons dulled the impact of his words. He is a magician and uses smoke and mirrors quite well.

Jim Mooney| 6.20.10 @ 3:08PM

Voting 3rd party is/Was a VOTE for obama. I didn't exactly vote McCain/Palin, I voted AGAINST that Non-American piece of trash that was elected.. The Young voters, the blacks and the Welfare people put King obama in office.. America will be beaten from the Inside out, not from Outsiders..

clm| 6.14.10 @ 7:41PM

And the democrats did not choose Obama. Limbaugh urged his followers to get Obama on the ticket as the easier competition

Jeremiah| 6.14.10 @ 10:43PM

Well, clm, I've heard of revisionist historians, but you are ridiculous. At least the revisionists usually try to flimflam people with stories that happened long before the listeners were paying any attention. Rush Limbaugh was NOT pushing Obama - he was trying to disrupt the Dems momentuam by encouraging people in safe states to vote for Hillary. Operation Chaos, he called it. So sorry - you Dems are solely to blame for nominating Obama.

A.M. Mallett| 6.15.10 @ 1:59PM

That was an inside joke among his dittoheads .. there was no actual move to do that.

Doc Zero| 6.14.10 @ 12:23PM

Every time I write something optimistic about the future of the United States, I hear from some doomsayers who assure me things will never get any better. Pessimistic conservatives say we’re locked into a death spiral, at the mercy of a system running on autopilot and programmed to crash. I also hear from some liberals who maintain there is no morally acceptable alternative to unsustainable Big Government, so we’re honor-bound to hold our course… right into the giant iceberg of insolvency approaching off the port bow.

I maintain my optimism by rejecting the ideas serving as the pillars of apathy.

I refuse to believe government programs launched in the Forties, Sixties, and Seventies are indestructible features of our lives, immune to repeal or reform. I don’t believe a nation with a 234-year history of courage and industry is destined to suffocate in a shallow pool of nanny-state cement, poured only a few generations ago. It will be difficult for the American giant to rise again… but history unfolds in the space between difficult and impossible.

There is no such thing as eternal legislation. Even the Constitution can be amended. It’s only a question of how much willpower it will take for us to cast aside the intolerable acts of our political class. We are descended from men who showed great vigor in resisting intolerable acts.

I don’t believe the American electorate is a hopeless mass of imbeciles and parasites. Of course, we’ll always have plenty of both… along with a breathtaking population of hard workers, visionaries, and heroes. It’s terribly short-sighted to write off a populace that ignores its expensive media apparatus and fills the streets for Tea Party rallies – joining people loudly accused of racism to denounce a supposedly inevitable system of total State control, run by a man they were taught it was sinful to oppose. The allegedly stupid proletariat of the United States just made Friedrich Hayek’s 66-year-old masterpiece, The Road to Serfdom, Number One on the Amazon.com bestseller list. Our fellow citizens are thinking, and questioning. Questions are acid to statism.

I reject the notion that politicians are universally corrupt and treacherous, leaving the voters with no meaningful power but to select the next batch of crooks to rob them blind. There are some men and women of true character and integrity in public offices throughout the land. There should be more of them. We should demand it. Throwing up our hands and accepting the notion that all of them are charlatans set the bar low enough for a useless “community organizer” with a shady past to stumble over it. It’s what got us trillion-dollar spending bills full of vague assumptions and lies, pushed by a government that has no serious plans beyond making itself larger. It’s how we ended up with a chief executive who only bothers to come into the office long enough to write himself a bigger budget, and looks honestly stunned when his country expects him to do something productive, or even take their side in an international debate.

A country of three hundred million is entitled to demand a few hundred honest men and women step forward to accept the responsibility of serving as representatives. We can also insist on patriotic leaders who view their seats as high honors, not stepping stones to their dream jobs as General Secretary of Earth.

Above all, I reject the essential premise of statism: the belief that we don’t need each other.

This is the distilled essence of Obama liberalism, which teaches us to look to the State for our needs, instead of seeking the voluntary cooperation of our fellows. Draining money from the private sector is a means of limiting our ability to work together. It damages our ability to generate wealth by finding opportunities for mutually beneficial trade. Nationalized and subsidized industries represent the forced reversal of our decision to avoid doing business with certain companies. You paid a lot of money to General Motors this year, even if you’ve never driven a GM car in your life.

There is a message hissing through the static of bailouts, moratoriums, takeovers, and mandates filling the past year. The code for that message was written in the pages of the New Deal and Great Society. It says we’re foolish to offer our services to each other, or invest in each other’s designs. Only the State can be trusted. Only compulsive force can resolve the great challenges facing us. The State requires all of us, and it’s the only thing any of us needs.

The apathetic victims who accept that message are sitting around Hoping for Change, instead of hiring each other to get things done. Free men and women exploit opportunities, instead of waiting for rescue. The cause of our double-digit unemployment is a shortage of opportunity, not a surplus of workers. Everyone standing in those unemployment lines is a potential producer, consumer, and investor. The job market only looks like an insoluble problem to people who think the State creates jobs.

I know that we do need each other. We will find each other, guided by the invisible hand of the marketplace, once we’ve disposed of the all-too-visible foot flopping around on the beaches of Louisiana, blindly searching for an ass to kick. We will remember that our highest laws were written to restrain the government, not its citizens. Watching the Democrats heave the ObamaCare Etch-a-Sketch for another shake will help us rediscover the value of private contracts, and the honesty of fair competition.

A great deal more than this Presidency is in the process of failing. Dismantling the bankrupt system we’ve accepted for our entire lives won’t be easy, and success is not guaranteed, but I see plenty to be optimistic about. Nothing prompts Americans to create alternatives faster than angry politicians insisting there aren’t any.

wouldee5150| 6.14.10 @ 1:15PM

it is simple. Impeach the stealth marxist prevaricator and move forward.
Obama had to be; because McSame would not have convinced the idiots on the LEFT that Obama is more of the same big government insanity spewed forth by W. and his pals.

They are all socialists protecting their imaginary fiefdom- puppets on a string-all.

This is our house, and these usurpers need to be checked hard and fast- swift and sure.

GE| 6.15.10 @ 12:05PM

Whoa!!!!
Don't impeach him. I have three scary words that show why that shouldi't happen:

President Joseph Bidon!

And the next five are just as bad.

The best plan is to nutralize by changing control of Congress, then use the ballot box again to fire him in 2012.

coal carrier| 6.14.10 @ 1:20PM

Doc,
Great post. Thank you.

Stephanie| 6.14.10 @ 3:11PM

Doc, I am disheartened, but I am sure as hell NOT apathetic! I work in local and state politics to try to make a difference. I try to educate my fellow citizens who only hear their news from one of the big 4.
And I did not as Alan said above, put McCain in the running seat. The RNC made that effing mistake.

Nathan R. Jessup| 6.14.10 @ 3:43PM

Would you be interested in writing for The Raw Deal? (http://the-raw-deal.com)

If so, please feel free to reach me through the 'contact' section of the site.

Thank you for your refreshingly insightful comment.

Stan Allen| 6.14.10 @ 5:05PM

Doczero, I like your optimism.

I hope I can recall it when the forces of pessimism converge, as they do every ten minutes or so!

the permanent newbie| 6.14.10 @ 7:04PM

Dear Dr. Zero,

I read you on Hot Air all the time, and it is SUCH a pleasure to find you here on the Spectator! You are the finest essayist on Hot Air! I urge everyone here to visit the Green Room at hotair.com for more of Doc Zero and other fine analysts.

J Rich| 6.14.10 @ 11:48PM

I too reject the notion tha all politicians are universally corrupt and treacherous. I think only most of the dems and some of the repubs are.
Howeveer, are not our leaders just a reflection of those who vote them in office?
The reason we so few politicians with integrety is because that is the way this nation as a whole is anymore. This nation has turned its back on God and still we expect God to bless our nation. It ain't gonna happen. Read the Bible and see what happened to nations that rejected God in O. T. times.

FTM| 6.15.10 @ 5:08AM

Hi Doc,

Not to get too Bible-Thumperish on you or anything but...

I've read the Bible through from cover to cover seven times. I've read commentaries and dissertations regarding books of the Bible by the hundredweight. You are right, things will get better. However, things are going to get a lot, lot lot worse first.

Christopher Holland| 6.14.10 @ 9:38PM

This is definitely a new slant on democracy - it's all your fault, you voted for the guy who lost.

Put that on a bumper sticker and see how well it travels.

chester arthur| 6.14.10 @ 10:47PM

Conservatives didn't choose McCain,moderates from both parties did.As the free-thinkers-in-lockstep proved,sometimes it ain't the vomit end the democrats pick from.The regressives have their man.

JR| 6.20.10 @ 3:19PM

NOOOO... The blacks, welfare blacks, welfare whites and the young voters made OUR bed...

Martin Owens| 6.14.10 @ 6:21AM

I have observed, more than once, Obama resting his hand on the side of his face, middle finger extended, when listening to something he doesn't like. Is this giving the ol' single-digit salute, on the sly?

drudge ette obama| 6.14.10 @ 7:12AM

My favorite Obama-ism is when he descends Air Force One. His fists are clenched loosly right below his chest and he looks like he's holding reins and trotting on a horse. It always occurs to me that Obama is taking a risk not having his hand on the railing - it must signify that he is self-conscious. Shoes too big to walk with God.

crob644| 6.14.10 @ 11:32AM

He looks more like a rabbit or a squirrel with his paws flopping in front while he trots down the steps. It looks comical, undignified...completely unpresidential.

chester arthur| 6.14.10 @ 10:51PM

An interesting thought,I just wish you didn't compare him to rabbits and especially squirrels.I kind of like the little rodents.And my pet squirrel is definitely more presidential.

Charles Martel| 6.15.10 @ 3:45AM

Why doesn't he hold the rail? because he doesn't know where that rail has been.

And why does he trot down the steps with his "paws flopping". Because he aspires to look presidential: think Gerald Ford.

+++

Jilly| 6.15.10 @ 1:14AM

I too have watched with amusement/disgust as he descends AF1 with his hands jiggling in front of him - he looks ridiculous. I think Michelle is the man in the family.

JR| 6.20.10 @ 3:21PM

NOOOO, He thinks he IS GOD.... With any luck he might just trip and fall off and send he on to meet the 72 Virginians...

Carol| 6.14.10 @ 6:45AM

When I read your example of him saying, "I am not an ideologue" is similar him saying, "I am not trying to turn America into a socialistic country." Upon which I say "Oh yes you are you liar." Joe Wilson was right.

Obama is a liar but he's a bad liar.

Appleby| 6.14.10 @ 7:05AM

I thought immediately of Nixon saying *I am not a crook.*

NJDen| 6.14.10 @ 8:02AM

Reminds me of Margaret Thatcher's "Being powerful is like being a lady; if you have to tell someone you are, you aren't."

CLC| 6.14.10 @ 8:38AM

Joe Wilson was of course right. When I first heard Mr. Obama say "I am not an ideologue" I thought of Rich Little -" I am not a crook."

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 6.14.10 @ 6:49AM

The most revealing body language was that of Obama when Sergeant Crowley could be seen in the background assisting Professor Gates, a friend of Obama's, while Obama play acted the confident President. This occured during the beer summit at the White House.

Prior to the beer summit Obama labeled the police as stupid, showing his disdain for the police and a total disregard of the facts.

And that's the real issue. Obama is a man who twists the truth, and on a daily basis. Beyond the body language is that of a pathological lair, perhaps mentally unsound.

Purpleguy| 6.14.10 @ 10:00AM

Since you weren't there and no nothing but what others told you, how do you know the police did not act stupidly?

ds80| 6.14.10 @ 10:07AM

It's been well-documented that the police acted according to established protocol.

PS: Your agenda is showing.

Bill Hussein O'Stalin| 6.14.10 @ 1:21PM

To your point, when Barack Obama was asked the question, he wasn't there either, so your statement is an indictment of him since he didn't have the facts. In fact, after the incident, Obama admitted he didn't have the facts and apologized. Maybe you should deal in facts. But then it wouldn't be fun to have you around.

Jim Gibbons| 6.15.10 @ 10:36AM

Experience tells me that the first words spoken on a topic are the closest to the reality of the speaker. Follow ups and apologies are the furthest from the reality of the speaker - managed and written or spoken by handlers (you know, those Chicago guys).

wouldee5150| 6.14.10 @ 1:23PM

you were doing fine just quietly listening to the facts and getting educated.

You should have remained silent on this, instead of showing everyone what an idiot you are.

Perecisely as you prescribe, you subscribe.

You will not see this because you are blind to it, just as Obama is blind to it.

Bilwick1| 6.14.10 @ 2:45PM

You know who did act stupidly? Purpleguy when he wrote the comment above.

arlo price| 6.14.10 @ 10:40PM

ROFLMAO

JmsA| 6.14.10 @ 3:15PM

"Since you weren't there and no (I suppose you meant to write: know) nothing but what others told you," how do you know the police acted stupidly?

Christopher Holland| 6.14.10 @ 9:44PM

You weren't there either, so why are you shooting your mouth off? The least you can do is practice the same rule you apply to everybody else.

Ret. Marine| 6.14.10 @ 6:55AM

I have seen this before, it was my son at the ripe age of fifteen. Enough said.

chuck| 6.14.10 @ 8:16AM

LOL, Nailed it Marine! Right before he got a much needed smack-down, like Pres. Peewee is headed for in November!

Semper Fi!

Purpleguy| 6.14.10 @ 10:03AM

You're on your way to losing Nevada, Kentucky and Illinois, Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania Senate races you were supposed to win to the Democrats or an Independent. If that's a smackdown, bring it on ...

Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 6.14.10 @ 10:42AM

That was a good joke you just told there Purp!! "You're on your way to losing blah, blah, blah!!, bring on the smackdown", you make me laugh Purp!! Tell us another one!!

Bydand76| 6.14.10 @ 3:09PM

Purple,
Where do you get your info from?

Every poll I have looked at shows the GOP candidate in fairly good shape.

Here is an example
http://www.rasmussenreports.co.....ada_senate

Maybe you should provide some evidence for your far fetched claims before you make yourself look like a bigger doofus than you already are!

Pro Libertate!

Pappyhappyclinger| 6.15.10 @ 1:33AM

Purpleguy may be right.

I suspect when he is not trolling, he is involved in campaign fraud.

Purple + guy

SEIU

Charles Martel| 6.15.10 @ 3:48AM

Precisely. SEIU? I never thought anything else.

+++

AMENBRO| 6.14.10 @ 3:28PM

Don't BOGART THAT JOINT my friend
Pass it over to me
You've been holdin on to it
An BARRACK sure would like a HIT.

I hope the scowl about to envelope your face and personage is as enjoyable as Peter Jenning's MUSH when the SANDINISTAs got their asses kicked in Nicaragua.

PREACH, PREACH, Preach your NONSENSE you waith
SMOKE SMOKE SMOKE
Until you TOKE YER SELF to death
Tell St. Peter at the GOLDEN GATe
You just hate to make em wait
You just gotta spread some more wishin fishermen's BAIT

LMFAO

DIPSCHTICKS like you fallin in line behind OBAMMIE Barry,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Knowin your level of insipid ignorance,,,,,,I'm not nearly as ashamed for having held me nose & voted in desperation for McCain

WHAT'S YOUR EXCUSE PURPLE HAID???/

JmsA| 6.14.10 @ 3:42PM

Look, folks. Purple Turd has a crystal ball. Do you have a mirror to go with it? If you do, why don't you stand in front of it and ask: Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the most insipid of them all? Go ahead, make my day, and cite the Founders. 11/02/2010

Tim*| 6.14.10 @ 6:01PM

" Sharron Angle, following her come-from-behind Republican Primary win Tuesday, has bounced to an 11-point lead over Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in Nevada’s closely-watched U.S. Senate race.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Nevada, taken Wednesday night, shows Angle earning 50% support while Reid picks up 39% of the vote. Five percent (5%) like some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are undecided. "

Tim*| 6.14.10 @ 6:08PM

The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey finds the GOP nominee ( Rand Paul )with support from 49% of the state’s voters while Conway earns 41% of the vote. Four percent (4%) prefer some other candidate, and six percent (6%) are undecided.

Tim*| 6.14.10 @ 6:26PM

The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely Voters shows Republican Kirk barely ahead of Democrat Alexi Giannoulias 42% to 39%. Seven percent (7%) would prefer another candidate, and 12% more are undecided at this point.

Tim*| 6.14.10 @ 6:31PM

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in the Sunshine State finds Republican Marco Rubio and Republican turned Independent Charlie Crist each earning 37% of the vote, while Democratic hopeful Kendrick Meek trails with 15% support. Eleven percent (11%) are undecided.

Tim*| 6.14.10 @ 6:36PM

Former Republican Congressman Rob Portman and his Democratic rival, Lieutenant Governor Lee Fisher, remain in a dead heat in Ohio’s race for the U.S. Senate.

The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Ohio Likely Voters shows each candidate picking up 43% support. Only four percent (4%) prefer some other candidate, but 10% are undecided.

Tim*| 6.14.10 @ 6:38PM

Congressman Joe Sestak’s post-primary bounce appears to be over, and he now trails Republican rival Pat Toomey by seven points in the U.S. Senate contest in Pennsylvania.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Likely Voters in Pennsylvania shows Toomey with 45% support, while Sestak earns 38%. Five percent (5%) prefer another candidate in the race, and 12% are undecided.

GE| 6.15.10 @ 12:45PM

A theoretical concept, if I may. Mr. Sestak's primary win was orchestrated by the independent voters to get Spectre out. Like the 2008 primaries where the Democrats did the same thing, they made sure they had a defeatable candiddate for their's to run against.
In Massachusetts in Sen. Brown's election. It was the Incependents that put him in. However, in Sestak's case they want him in so he can be beaten by Pat Toomey in the General Election in November. This is a standard strategy so you get to choose your guys rival. Then, swing to the real one you support in the general election. I think this is what happened here.

Everyone seems to think on the two party level. That concept is no longer valid. The voter registrations indicate the Democrats and the Republicans are no longer the two largest parties. There is a huge group of; independent party, no party affilliation and the other parties less well known, voters out there. Then there is the Libetirian and Green parties. The non Dem and GOP voters are counted in the category called Independent Voters. This conglomerate of voters presently constitutes the second largest group in the nation. As such they can wield a lot of options and power to make sure good candidates are elelcted.

A.M. Mallett| 6.15.10 @ 2:10PM

Loosen the circumcision tourniquet from around your neck and some of that purple headedness will go away.

Pugsley| 6.14.10 @ 10:26AM

Ret. Marine-you are absolutely right. At that same age my grandfather told me one day, 'what you don't know isn't worth knowing, and I agreed with him!!!' Ah to be that age again. Of course when you take it with you into adulthood like the lawn jockey has there tends to be problems in judgement. Nuff said.

Ned| 6.14.10 @ 7:00AM

Once a community organizer always a community organizer. He looks down on us because he believes we elected him to help us out of our misery with a free handout, one that is paid for by someone else, preferably someone who is rich, evil, and mean.
We are the peasants rushing to the Lord for help and he will dispense it; so long as we stay in our place and never forget who our superior is.

Brian Mc| 6.14.10 @ 7:16AM

"...help us out of our misery..."

Well said, Ned! He holds such disdain and arrogance concerning the governed that we can only hope that it continues to wreak from him and this is a done deal considering his training and upbringing.

Purpleguy| 6.14.10 @ 10:07AM

So you would prefer no unemployment assistance or food stamps while you are unemployed? Maybe you want to give back the tax cut he gave you? Or, maybe your twenty-year old kids want to stay off your insurance and pay for their own? Perhaps you want college tuition to be harder for your kids to pay for and you want to give back that new college reform? Maybe you wanted him to leave Iraq and Afghanistan immediately, with know concern for conditions on the ground?

Bill Browne| 6.14.10 @ 10:20AM

Any money or services provided by this administration are taken from folks that work and produce.
What is wrong with the idea that life takes effort. Many people, myself included washed windows to get through college and worked hard. I don't want to give money to a person who can't support themselves in every way and duty.

crookedwren| 6.14.10 @ 10:34AM

Or maybe you want liberty and the pursuit of happiness --

I love your "concern for conditions on the ground" line. Weren't the Obama 'shrooms rooting for immediate withdrawal of troops from that unfair war (brought to us, of course, by that evil, Hitlerian George W. Bush -- the source of ALL contemporary evil in the world)? Now the progressives are all concerned about the "conditions on the ground"???

Purpleguy, the Brits are trying to lower their VATs to 5 % -- from over 17% -- WHY? CAUSE IT'S KILLING THEIR JOBS.

Go back to your shadows, your Huffington Post, your diet of propaganda and history written by your CPUSA Professors. You might actually learn the truth here -- and THAT won't fit you ideologic agenda.

Luke S| 6.14.10 @ 10:51AM

"Or, maybe your twenty-year old kids want to stay off your insurance and pay for their own?"

Yes. I've raised them big enough already and they need to pay their own damn way now. That provision in the health bill was a payoff to Obama voters. He's turned our kids into a special interest sucking at the teat of government.

Ron| 6.14.10 @ 11:27AM

Purpleguy might want to consider changing to Redguy.

loulou| 6.14.10 @ 12:03PM

Perpleguy is a parasite who does not pay federal income tax.

wbheff| 6.14.10 @ 12:46PM

In re, "Or, maybe your twenty-year old kids want to stay off your insurance and pay for their own?"
Once they turn 18, they are no longer "kids," but rather adults according to our current laws. The are old enough to vote (although not old enough to drink alcoholic beverages legally), enter into contracts, etc., so why should they not get their own insurance? Or decide not to get it if they don't want it.

Carol| 6.14.10 @ 1:08PM

Yes, Purp, the answer is yes, I WOULD rather.

George| 6.14.10 @ 2:38PM

Businesses pay a tax to fund unemployment benefits. Beyond that fund - No. Their families and the local community should take care of them. Obama NEVER gave a tax break. What planet are you on? He lowered the monthly tax obligation so people could see a little - very little - more money in their paychecks but then still held them to the SAME tax burden at the end of the year so many tax payers either got no refund or had to pay the government money for the first time. My insurance is going up because I can keep my 25 year old kid on MY insurance. No it is time adult children pay their way. College tuition has NOT changed - only the government (i.e. the tax payer) is now giving out the loans. Finally, no the Obama zombies wanted Obama to send our troops home immediately.

Stan Allen| 6.14.10 @ 5:13PM

I'll gladly give back Obama's "Tax Cut" in return for making permanent the tax cuts that George W. Bush gave me.
Purple, this business about making college tuition 'easier' to pay for ignores all kinds of factors - if it were that simple, sure, go ahead and subsidize everyone's college education at the taxpayer's expense!
The question is: when did it become conventional wisdom that secondary education should be subsidized by the public purse? Just what happened to elevate gov't-provided college education to a national need? We did this with primary education, all the way up through high school. So what's different now? Nothing; a bunch of mumbo-jumbo.
Tuition "Assistance" hasn't made college more affordable in the slightest; it's just expanded the education-bureaucracy class, and if anything, tuition has gone higher to keep this newly-empowered layer of personnel employed.
Making college tuition "easier" to pay is simply taking from one place, and giving it to another - it's all fine in the abstract, but I don't believe it's my job to pay for your kid's college education, or vice-versa.

John Navratil| 6.14.10 @ 5:51PM

Yes, Purpleguy, I would prefer no unemployment assistance which I am unemployed. As I work for myself that is precisely what I get.

But it isn't just me, ask Paul Krugman, the economist to the great O. We wrote in the book he co-authored with his wife that extending unemployment benefits keeps unemployment rate UP! It's part of the supply and demand thing they teach in first year economics.

Tim*| 6.14.10 @ 6:58PM

It's The Economy , Purple & Stupid !

Ozero is An Economic Buffoon.

" The kickoff to the summer job season is not looking so hot for teens.

Employment among 16-to 19-year olds in May grew by just 6,000, the smallest increase since 1969, when teen jobs fell by 14,000, according to government data analyzed by employment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. In May 2008 and 2009, teen employment grew by over 110,000. "

The Tea Party Rebellion Escalates .

Remember In November.

coal carrier| 6.14.10 @ 7:12AM

The reason he looks down his nose is because the teleprompter is set too high.

saleboter| 6.14.10 @ 7:17AM

Our snoot in cheif.

smokincols42| 6.14.10 @ 7:19AM

obama is damaged goods. anyone who has delved into his past can see it, plainly. he has no mother, no father, no relatives, to speak of and he is literally the bastard of a union made with political incentives, only. it doesn't get any better than two marxists consumating a relationship with the result of that marxist relationship becoming the President of the United States, however, i refuse to admit he is the President of my country.

Purpleguy| 6.14.10 @ 10:08AM

Luckily, YOU don't have any say in the matter... you lost ... and that ship has sailed.

Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 6.14.10 @ 10:51AM

Purp: You're right, that ship has sailed, and it hit the first sand barge in the harbor, and is sinking fast!! And you're still on board Purp? You're either very brave, or very stupid!! Join the rest of the rats, and jump overboard, it's the only "hope & change" you have left!! Or go down with the ship, and see if I care!!

Ron | 6.14.10 @ 11:29AM

We'll have plenty of say come 2012.

Tim*| 6.14.10 @ 7:07PM

Aaarrrrgggghhh !
That Pirate Scow Be Down in Davey Jones Locker !
Where's Me P Obama Parrot ,Purpleguy.

Aaarrrggghhhh !

DeJa| 6.18.10 @ 11:07AM

I, too, refuse to call this "person" president. Sad, isn't it... Koolaid, for sure.

brewpop| 6.14.10 @ 7:43AM

When I see Mr. Obama strike his raised, jutting chin pose I am reminded--frighteningly--of one Bonito Mussolini, Italy's World War II dictator. Scary!

rong| 6.14.10 @ 8:06AM

I'm happy to see this is finally pointed out in the media. My wife and I have been discussing how much Obama looks down his nose when he speaks. Benito Mussolini indeed had the same affectation. If you can, look at some of his old news reel footage. He to was a believer in big government and corporatism. He to felt there wasn't a problem government couldn't solve.

Bilwick1| 6.14.10 @ 8:32AM

I noticed the resemblance between "Il Duce" and "Il Dufe" myself, brewpop. When you throw in the similarity of philosophy ("Everything for the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State") , it really is scary.

Dixie Pixie| 6.15.10 @ 1:31PM

Greetings Brewpop, Rong and Bilwick1
Gentlemen I respectably disagree.

Obama is not even remotely similar to the Mussolini in behavior attitude or continuity of beliefs.

Mussolini believed in the inherent greatness of of his country and wished to recreate the Roman Empire. Obama believes in the exact opposite and wishes to delegitimize Pax America.

Mussolini created a unique branch of political philosophy and believed in it passionately. It is doubtful Obama believes in anything passionately. Certainly there is not a Obama philosophy visible. Obama has never created a original political idea, he just speaks what is on the teleprompter.

Mussolini believed in the concepts of his speeches. Obama uses political concepts to play “dress up “ to sucker his supporters. Mussolini died because of his beliefs. Obama never held a belief unless it was political fashionable. Obama will drop his beliefs and supporters when they become inconvenient.

The only way Mussolini and Obama are similar is both are completely delusional nutters.

EasTexan| 6.14.10 @ 7:48AM

Concerning Obama's mannerisms, Shakespeare's "Methinks he does protest too much", comes to mind. For example, have others noticed, as have I, his frequent use of the phrase, "I, as your president..." to which I always respond, "well, actually, we do know who you are and need not be reminded".

Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 6.14.10 @ 8:18AM

I'm think I'm guilty of doing this too, I find myself looking down my nose at this Administration, its policies, its Czars, and everybody who supports any of it!! But it makes me feel a little superior to them, looking down my nose at these Liberals, Socialists, and Commies (P.T.S.!!), but unfortunately, it doesn't seem to change their ways one little bit. Maybe it's time to change my tactics (and it hurts my neck too)?

Purpleguy| 6.14.10 @ 10:10AM

Liberals aren't Commies and aren't Socialists .. but you don't know the difference do you? Been listening to Glenn Beck a little too much, eh?

Mikey| 6.14.10 @ 10:40AM

"Liberals aren't Commies and arent's Socialists.. but you don't know the difference do you?
Sure they are. They all hate America. Just like Zero in the White House does. Please put down your Kool Aid.

Son Of Sam| 6.14.10 @ 9:32PM

Liberalism is socialism sold by the drink
Communism is socialism sold by the keg, which you're forced to drink at gunpoint

Anyway you look at it, its still the same old rat piss. And finger pointing cry babies like PurpleGuy are dying to drink it all up, just as soon as mommy lets them out of time out

stand strong until freedom dawns
Son Of Sam

Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 6.14.10 @ 10:54AM

Purp: You are on a roll today Buddy!! Very funny stuff!! Keep it up, I was feeling a little down today, but you're really cheering me up now. Liberals aren't Commies or Socialists? That's good stuff!! Tell us another joke!!

NeilBJ| 6.14.10 @ 10:58AM

Liberals are oxymorons.

The classical liberal believes in small government and individual liberty, so to label those who work tirelessly for increasing the power of government "liberals" is a self-contradiction.

Campy| 6.14.10 @ 11:25AM

Bingo, NeilBJ. But you won't get someone like Purpleguy to believe that; the label has been hijacked.

Faffnir| 6.14.10 @ 1:23PM

Perhaps you should study the platforms of the various European socialist parties and question how they materially differ from the "liberal" agenda and the actions of the Democrat party. Read Goldberg's "Liberal Fascism" and determine how the current Democrat Party agenda differs from that of the Fascists. Read "das Kapital" and the Communist Party Manifesto. Read the history of the failure that was the late, unlamented Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. How does that differ from what the Democrat Party is attempting to legislate in this country?
Your general ignorance is not amusing. It is a sad commentary on the system of government mandated, union controlled education in this country. I wonder if you have ever even read the Constitution? The Federalist? Adam Smith? Hayeck? von Mises? I fear that you are like most, taking the lies and pabulum coming from your TV and slurping them down, belching and calling for more. That this country could be founded by giants like Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Hamilton and be allowed to degenerate to accept fools like Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Schumer and the rest of the liberal idiot-ocracy is beyond my powers of comprehension. Well, it is said that no fortune lasts beyond the third generation. We have squandered ours and you are an example.

Bydand76| 6.14.10 @ 3:18PM

Purple,

Again show some evidence supporting your claim!!! I highly doubt you will be able to do that!

I would say your words ring hollow when you have administration officials who openly admire Marx/Mao/Guevarra/ and other commie pigs!

Sorry. If it walks like a socialist. Talks like a socialist. Smells like a socialist.

It's probably a socialist!

At least Beck can back up what he says with a historical reference and convincing argument!

You on the other hand simply like to bloviate! I am beginning to suspect you are really Michael Moore!!

Pro Libertate!

JmsA| 6.14.10 @ 3:24PM

Purpleturd,

How can anyone discern any difference when they're both the same but in name?

Tim*| 6.14.10 @ 7:12PM

Socialists are aspiring Commies.

Next !

chester arthur| 6.14.10 @ 11:04PM

Liberals don't have the nerve to admit the slightly watered down communist or socialist ties,so they just say they are "progressives".Meaning they are obsessive and regressive.Most of them don't have the attention span to be communists,or the subtlety to be socialists.They do have the sterotyping down really well,though.

FTM| 6.15.10 @ 6:22AM

Liberals aren't Commies and aren't Socialists ..

OK, I accept your premise theoretically. What then do you call Liberals or Progressives or whatever else it is that these folks are calling themselves this week? One side says that you should be self-sufficient, self contained and independent. The other side thinks that stealing from others under threat of force/bodily harm in order to subsidize an ever growing "useless class" is the morally and ethically correct thing to do.

Looting is looting, in this case the only difference is that some of the looters have badges.

Please notice that I havent breathed a word about political party in that I believe that both sides are equally guilty.

Purpleguy, sir, under what system of morality or ethics is it ever permissible to take something from someone against their will? If taking something from one person under threat of violence is wrong then how can taking something from someone under threat of violence based on the approval of a mob be right?

Before we get into the "threat of violence" arguement please let me say that if you don't pay your taxes a carload of jack-booted government thugs with guns and badges will show up to take from you whatever it is that they think is theirs and if you give them enough crap about it they will kill you live on the Communist News Network and Wolf Blitzer will tell everyone that you had it coming.

In a spirit of friendship, from one guy to another, I recommend that you take a couple afternoons and sit down and read "Common Sense" and "The Rights of Man" by Payne then take another afternoon and take a read at "Das Kapital" by Marx and then the "Communist Manifesto" by Marx and Engels. Then we can have this conversation again.

Johnny Beigler| 6.14.10 @ 8:19AM

Also of note is how often Obama reminds everyone that he is President - as if he doesn't quite believe it. That's OK, sir, the rest of us can hardly believe it either.

Granny Jan| 6.14.10 @ 8:20AM

I've been doing videos on BHO's body language before it became a topic of conversation.

Here are some of his tics I've found. His weird and compulsive touching of everyone. In my opinion this goes beyond the usual dominance theory of touching.

He never walks with people; he walks ahead of everyone else. This makes for some amusing photos.

He has a weird out of place grin when everyone else seems not to get the joke.

My first video was called cardboard cut-out Obama because of his ability to never move in photo shoots and have a never changing grin. I did this before one video went viral on this.

And more. Although I delete my old videos you can find plenty if you click my name.

arlo price| 6.14.10 @ 8:20AM

The obamagedon PIMP thugocracy chugs along......

Just like a pimp!!!

Hollybob| 6.14.10 @ 8:23AM

Actually, the quote from Hamlet is, "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."

Ned| 6.14.10 @ 8:24AM

Don't forget the way he turns his head back and forth like a metronome so we can admire his magnificent ears.

Timothy L. Pennell| 6.14.10 @ 8:53AM

No, no ,no. You're all wrong. You're close. But you're not seeing it.
He is IL DUCE'. He's MUSSOLINI! C'mon. Look at the films of Mussolini giving a speech. Look at his STARE. He doesn't look AT anyone. He stares out ABOVE everyone. Just like Our Boy King.
He looks out over the masses. The Great Unwashed. The Pitiful SUCKERS who believe in his ACT.
LOOK AT HIM. His Imperious Gaze. His Looooooong Pauses. His obvious DISDAIN for any opinion, contrary to his own.
He wouldn't be the first FASCIST to emulate Il Duce'. There was a Community Organizer in BERLIN, who also fancied Benitos' oratory skills.
WATCH THE FILMS!

maverick muse| 6.14.10 @ 9:01AM

Bullseye!

The 'Better Than Thou' Marxists

Purpleguy| 6.14.10 @ 10:12AM

Boring ...

NavyBrat| 6.14.10 @ 10:45AM

Yes, we know you are.

Purpleguy| 6.14.10 @ 5:00PM

How predictable ...

Chisco| 6.14.10 @ 10:43AM

Well, there are a couple of differences between "DA WUN" abd the speakers you mentioned -- 1) they were both much better speakers (albeit EVIL at the same time!). 2) They actually BELIEVED in what they were sayiong, whereas I think that obama doesn't believe in anything other than his own "superiority". 3) They also showed real passion and emotion when speaking, which obama clearly DOES NOT (that's hard to do when you don't mean what you say!)

Hitler and Mussolini delievered their speches much better than obama -- but they are all the same in terms of "destruction" of SOMETHING being their chief goal....the difference is in the LEVEL of destruction they seek!

maverick muse| 6.14.10 @ 8:58AM

"Many of us feel that is exactly what Barak Obama feels about us."

Flipping the bird on his nose as he looks down that pike is hardly a subtle "nuance".

Obama made his antipathy absolutely clear from the beginning of his campaign, that if you weren't part of his party, you were/are part of the miserable "them" to be deleted from existence, bit by bit.

Aside from his horrible body language, you learn a lot from one's vocabulary. During his potus campaign, Obama described his political opponents (both compassionate neoconservatives and grassroots Constitutional Conservatives) as "bitter clingers" full of ignorant "antipathy" for what Marxists deem best for everyone.

Recall Obama's flight back from his Berlin Beer und Bratwurst international campaign speech, he fingered the FOX journalist on board for everyone else ganglike to denigrate and ridicule as an outcast.

It's always been crystal clear.

btw, what gives with spelling Obama's first name as his father did, but to parallel the fruition of their Barak Dreams as published by Obama Sr.: 100% taxation in order for the nation's socialist government to "give" the people all that they need.

Richard_Iowa | 6.14.10 @ 9:04AM

Obama is very much like Sponge Bob. Very ambitious, lots of energy, and happy go lucky, but completely incapable, prone to failure, and dumb as a box of rocks.

John3| 6.14.10 @ 9:06AM

The very scary thing is 47-48% of Americans--according to polls--still believe in this man. America is the last bastion of democracy on earth. This man is plundering this country!

Purpleguy| 6.14.10 @ 10:13AM

Stop watching Fixed News and you might see what good he's done for the country. You WON'T hear that on Fixed.

Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 6.14.10 @ 11:15AM

Fixed News?, instead of Fox News, Wow!!, you Sir are a genius!! Now I've heard people call it Faux News, Fox Skewed, Fox Spews, Fox Noise, Fair & Unbalanced, Fairly Unbalanced, We Distort-You Deride, Pox News, Fog News, Fascist News, We Spin-You Lose!! But Fixed News? Purp, you are in a league all your own!!

Purpleguy| 6.14.10 @ 4:16PM

Why, thank you!

Occam's Tool| 6.14.10 @ 5:15PM

Purp, he's not complimenting you. Look up: sarcasm.

Ron| 6.14.10 @ 11:35AM

Purpleguy| 6.14.10 @ 10:13AM
Stop watching Fixed News and you might see what good he's done for the country. You WON'T hear that on Fixed.

Is it nice out there in la la land.

Campy| 6.14.10 @ 11:42AM

Okay, Purp. Whacha got? What's on your list of the 'good' he's done?

RAMIII| 6.14.10 @ 2:05PM

Don't talk to Purpleguy. He is not LISTENING -- someone let him out of his special place and he is delirious in his excitement.

Rational Thought will never win over emotion. Emotion must be strapped into the back seat, before you can go in a coherent direction.

Purpleguy| 6.14.10 @ 4:59PM

Okay, here ya go:
1) Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 (women)
2) State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to cover an additional 4 million children currently uninsured. (children)
3) Obama reversed a Bush-era policy which had limited funding of embryonic stem cell research (the sick)
4) Sonia Sotomayor, nominated by Obama on May 26, 2009, to replace retiring Associate Justice David Souter, was confirmed on August 6, 2009, becoming the first Hispanic to be a Supreme Court Justice. (Diversity)
5) Obama signed the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a measure that expands the 1969 United States federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by a victim's actual or perceived gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability, on October 8, 2009 (Diversity)
6) Agreed to close Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp - timeline was not completed though
7) On March 30, 2010, Obama signed the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act
8) Increased the Pell Grant scholarship award
9) On February 17, 2009, Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a $787 billion economic stimulus package aimed at helping the economy recover from the deepening worldwide recession
10) Obama intervened in the troubled automotive industry in March, renewing loans for General Motors and Chrysler to continue operations while reorganizing.
11) Car Allowance Rebate System
12) Obama's granting of his first television interview as president to an Arabic cable network, Al Arabiya, was seen as an attempt to reach out to Arab leaders.
13) On September 24, 2009, Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to preside over a meeting of the United Nations Security Council.
14) an agreement was reached with the administration of Russian President Dmitri Medvedev to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with a new pact reducing the number of long-range nuclear weapons in the arsenals of both countries by about one-third

15) Obama announced that he would retain the incumbent Defense Secretary, Robert Gates, in his Cabinet.
16) On December 1, 2009, Obama announced the deployment of an additional 30,000 military personnel to Afghanistan
17) According to a May 2009 poll conducted by Harris Interactive for France 24 and the International Herald Tribune, Obama was rated as the most popular world leader, as well as the one figure most people would pin their hopes on for pulling the world out of this economic downturn
18) On October 9, 2009, the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that Obama had won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples"

And, that's just a start ...

Stan Allen| 6.14.10 @ 5:27PM

Well, I'm glad someone thinks that these are "Accomplishments" - elevation of Sonia Sotomayor? Give me a break! According to her, a "Wise Latina" is inherently a better judge than a white man - and your party is supposedly the party of racial equality and justice? Pardon me while I vomit.
And that "Stimulus" that went to local unions, democrats, and democrat-controlled favored groups and projects? You actually think that was an accomplishment, rather than a waste of taxpayer money?
Finally, once you look at the other news outlets, Fox appears biased only because they themselves are reporting from a position so far left that anything to its right appears to be "Ultra" right wing.
Get out your compass, and mark your position; I can assure you that you're "Ultra Left Wing", in the same manner you accuse us of being "Ultra Right Wing".

Stan Allen| 6.14.10 @ 5:30PM

Oh, oh - your number 18? Obama's Nobel Peace Prize? You consider that an accomplishment? In fact, do you consider that he actually deserved it? Please enlighten us with the "Accomplishments" of Obama that "earned" the award. Everyone with common sense understands that the Nobel prize became a political football awhile back, and sold out whatever principles it once possessed. Giving the award to Obama for absolutely no reason was the final nail in its own coffin.

Nick| 6.14.10 @ 7:11PM

PurpleJackass,

Your list stinks, as everything you write does.

1) Evil
2) Evil
3) Evil
4) Evil
5) Evil
6) Evil
7) Evil
8) Evil
9) Evil
10) Evil
11) Evil
12) Evil
13) Stupid
14) Appeasement
15) Okay
16) Half-measure, the generals asked for 60,000.
17) Evil is always popular.
18) Evil

You are right, though.
This is just a start to the evil this regime will inflict on this Great Nation.

FTM| 6.15.10 @ 6:38AM

1) Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009 (women)

Let's examine this one critically, logically for just one moment shall we?

Where is this organization, this business that has one pay rate for women and another for men? Where is this place? I've never seen it.

I've been building cars since 1986 and what I do see is that women get breaks in the workplace that men never get. "Can you lift this for me, it's too heavy." Let a man take the number of potty breaks that a woman takes and he'll get fired.

There are a lot of women in the modern workplace that carry their own weight, trust me on this one but the ones that milk the system for all it's worth give the rest a very bad name.

Now, if you factor in all of the family leave time that women get for pregnancies and the like, taking care of sick kids and/or family members, time off without pay, then women do make less than men. However, if men were to take the same amount of time off that women do for the same reasons that women do they'd lose their jobs.

I live in an "employment and will" state. That means that you can leave your job whenever you want. It also means that your company can terminate your employment and aren't even leagally required to give you a reason. Now, if you think for even a second that a company here would tolerate behavior in a man that they accept from a woman then you have another think coming.

I'm all for equal rights regardless of gender. If women and men in the workplace were treated equally there would be damned few women down to the factory.

chester arthur| 6.14.10 @ 11:08PM

The good Obama's done?No,you won't hear that anywhere the truth dares to come out and play.The best thing he'll ever do is just go away,and retire to look down his nose at the cat in delusional megalomaniaville.

Louis Jenkins| 6.14.10 @ 9:22AM

"Besides his actual birth documentation, documentation that remains concealed for Obama includes kindergarten records, Punahou school records, Occidental College records, Columbia University records, Columbia thesis, Harvard Law School records, Harvard Law Review articles, scholarly articles from the University of Chicago, passport, medical records, his files from his years as an Illinois state senator, his Illinois State Bar Association records, any baptism records, and his adoption records."

Obama was not born in AMERICA! Not only has his long form birth certificate sealed, but all of the above. WND has an article on this very issue today. All of this justifies that we are being ruled by a fake. How long O Lord will you refuse to listen?

loulou| 6.14.10 @ 12:08PM

The sociopath Obama may or may not have been born in Hawaii. We do know that he is a citizen of Indonesia.

ElGordo| 6.14.10 @ 9:22AM

Quite often when speaking, Obama strikes the same pose as Benito Mussolini.

Looking over the top of the crowd with his jaw jutting out.

Grzmlyk| 6.14.10 @ 9:25AM

Hey, ElGordo:

Right on the money - it was the very first thing I notices about Obama. The pose is identical. And very, very telling.

Grzmlyk| 6.14.10 @ 9:23AM

What astounds me is how many supposedly conservative pundits STILL fail to accurately assess Obama's reaction to the gulf spill.

Brit Hume, who has apparently lost his mind, has bent over backwards - like Bill O'Reilly - to forgive any and every glaring Obama misstep. Yesterday on Fox News Sunday, Hume and Bill Kristol were at pains to exonerate Obama personally; Hume allowed that, while Obama may have made some mistakes in the spill's aftermath, most of his critics were harping on essentially peripheral, cosmetic grounds, while Kristol pointed out that Obama's approval ratings have been fairly stable since prior to the catastrophe. Kristol then said that, to the extent people disproved of the administration's response, it was more a repudiation of "obamaism" than Obama himself.

Yesterday's panel was so bizarre that it even Juan Williams was dismayed at the pass Hume and Kristol gave Obama. it was left to Williams and Mara Liasson – Mara Liasson! to see the bigger picture! WTF?

I also heard Arthur Laffer say that Obama was a good man but a bad president.

Conservatives who are far too eager to pat themselves on the back for their highly-evolved non-partisanship by declaring Obama innocent of the spill are missing the point. Duh! Of course he isn't responsible for the spill.

But scrutiny of his response brings into focus as even the health care debacle did not an emerging portrait of a dark, dark personality.

The phones to the governors of the states have remained silent; the administration deliberately misrepresented an ad hoc expert group's recommendations with respect to the moratorium; several companies that offered help for the clean-up - providing booms, etc. remain confined to the sidelines by the heavy hand of the administration. Obamunists refuse to waive the Jones Act. And on and on and on.

It is becoming clear that Obama is letting this situation become insurmountable on purpose (never let a crisis go to waste) while covering his malign negligence with his usual cover of ankle-biting and promises of retribution.

This is beyond incompetence or misfeasance; it is sadistic malfeasance. So Brit, Bill and Arthur - and Peggy and David and Bill and the rest of you, listen up:

Obama's response to this spill reveals our president to be a nihilistic agent of destruction - it proves that Obama is a sulking, angry miscreant who defines himself only through negative acts (hence his career as an agitator for ACORN), no different from a common street thug who feels empowered by vandalizing private property.

It takes a great deal of sophistication, knowledge, ability, vision and courage to create something of lasting value in our civilization; it takes nothing but dumb, brute strength to tear it down.

Obama is not just incompetent or immature or ideologically blinkered.

He is a bad man.

Maddox| 6.14.10 @ 10:15AM

Yes, Grzmlyk, I agree and do not understand why so many are reluctant to admit this.

Grzmlyk| 6.14.10 @ 10:25AM

It's infuriating - particularly when this alternate reality affects conservatives.

Then again, people loved Mussolini; he was the toast of the Western World when he first assumed power, and of course Hitler was very popular up until around 1939. And so-called journalists like the New York Times's infamous Walter Duranty never did see the organized euthanasia that was going on under his nose in the Soviet Union; no, "Uncle Joe" Stalin was A-ok with the New York Times until about the 1950s.

I have no doubt Obama's pathology is the result of a horrible, seedy, rootless, neglected childhood.

But the fact is, he now commands the very heights of a fast-dwindling America, and he is doing everything he can to destroy this country and replace it with a global Marxism. And what fuels him is what fuels all Marxists - hate disguised as idealism.

We can only hope this guy's fate is similar to that of Mussolini's or Hitler's - preferably without the US being reduced to rubble.

Purpleguy| 6.14.10 @ 10:20AM

"it takes nothing but dumb, brute strength to tear it down. " - and we're living with the Republican teardown of the government, started under Ronald Reagan of the government's ability to protect us. A limited government cannot respond to a private industry catastrophe. Where in the Constitution does it say the Federal government should manage a private industry disaster? You Republicans can't have it both ways. Either you want limited Government with no power and ineffectual, and unable to control much of anything, or you don't, and want a strong central government that can take charge and fix any and all natural and man-made events.

Grzmlyk| 6.14.10 @ 10:30AM

Ah yes, as usual, the liberal rests the entire weight of his arguments on straw men. Don't you guys ever get tired of the taste of hay?

We expect government to take care of certain things - like wars, for instance. There are instances where federal government should take the lead - as when a disaster affects multiple states, for instance.

To say we believe in no government is a lie. Using your logic, it's obvious that liberals want government to control every single aspect of our lives, from what to eat to what to wear to where to live to how much money we have to what we drive to whom we associate with to what we say to what we think to where we work to how much medical care we receive to when we die.

Oh, wait. now I get it. You really DO believe those things. So you think we're extremsists because extremism is the prism through which you view the world.

Purpleguy| 6.14.10 @ 3:12PM

Who said anything about "No Government" ?

Typically, you twist the argument to fit what you want to argue against. Who said anything about "what to eat to what to wear to where to live to how much money we have to what we drive to whom we associate with to what we say to what we think to where we work to how much medical care we receive to when we die." ? Only you said that - is that your real hidden agenda? Or is that a psychosis within you?

Obviously, no one is telling you what to think, because you don't.

"We expect government to take care of certain things - like wars, for instance. There are instances where federal government should take the lead - as when a disaster affects multiple states, for instance. " - Really? Are you sure?

It is unconstitutional for the federal government to lead when a disaster affects multiple states. No where in the Constitution will you find a provision for that - or that the Federal Government could mandate the Interstate Highway System or the Transcontinental Railroad or the Transatlantic passenger service. But the Federal Government did. It provided seed money and invoked eminent domain to acquire all the property needed for the land-based improvements. All progressive, I might add.

Tell, if you really believe in limited Government, limited to what? The Income Tax is first, right? No Social Security and Medicare I'll bet. No Education and Energy Department is in the no column, I presume. Unemployment Insurance, Workmen's Compensation Insurance, the CIA, FBI, NSA, Farm subsidies and agricultural supports - they can all be trashed, right?

Tell me, if you can, what does a limited Federal Government look like? You can't have it both ways. Just like in a "Wonderful Life" I wish y'all could have the chance to see the world you would live in without the government we have. Do you really think we would be the Superpower we are without the partnership of Government and Capitalism? Do you?

Grzmlyk| 6.14.10 @ 10:42AM

Oh, by the way - the federal government's role should be limited to coordinating resouces - we all saw how the Federal bureaucracy - i.e., the 23-bureaucratic despartments rolled into one megalith) fell down during Katrina (I know, I know, Bush and Cheney personally bombed the levies). We all see how the Dept. of Education has done nothing except shove money its its maw for the 30 years of its history. We're beginning to see how the 115 new federal agencies are going to make health care exorbitantly expensive while simulataneously lowering quality.

So the word for federal coordination is a word you libs have never understood: LIMITED.

Capish?

Purpleguy| 6.14.10 @ 3:43PM

No, I don't ... Everything you mentioned is unconstitutional .. shouldn't we throw it all out?

Grzmlyk| 6.14.10 @ 10:51AM

Also, how typical of a moron liberal - the ONE thing they don't want torn down is Government. Every other edifice of American Exceptionalism - hey, let's loot every institution ever created.

But god forbid we touch the sanctified Government! Why, it's been proved to be SOOO effectual!

Purple guy, maybe you should open a window and get some air.

Purpleguy| 6.14.10 @ 3:46PM

Why are you being Un-American? The Founders of this country gave you this government - they didn't give you it's industry or any of the other "institutions", which you don't identify. They gave you this Government and you want to dismantle the government that produced the country you live in? Now, certainly, the Government didn't do any of this by itself, but along with the invisible hand of the market, the government guided us to where we are today.

And, you don't like the United States? Really?

Grzmlyk| 6.14.10 @ 6:09PM

Are you trying to appear smart?

Because you're failing miserably.

Try something original.

George S| 6.14.10 @ 12:44PM

Can't a "strong" state or local government do the same thing? For example, why would Maine budget resources for hurricanes or Florida for snowstorms? For their particular weather or other situational problems, they would be in a better position to set up resources to effectively handle the problem based on years of experience in dealing with them.

Back to a "strong central government"... define the filter. Filter, you ask? Yes, how does the federal government amass the technical expertise to handle EVERY problem? What filters the best and the brightest to a government paycheck instead of the financial incentives awaiting in the private sector? What is the incentive for the government to solve problems? Reelection? Nope... you only get reelected if you accomplish, not attempt. Failure is your opponent's campaign ads.

Think about Obama... there is no one in his inner circle who has any business experience, dead weight that could never find a job in the private sector that relies on their knowledge instead of their "pull". Yet you trust these guys to run GM, set executive pay, move TARP money where "needed" or set energy policy. Why? How can they do things better than experts in the field? The answer: they can't, but government has the power to compel their actions in a way that you find satisfying -- satisfied enough to vote for the compellors. So you sit back and cheer the ass-whoopin trash talk while thousands of people suffer because the president sees this crisis as a means to his own ends (not yours).

Bottom line is that government will not take charge and fix anything unless there is a political payoff down the road. It is the same thing that motivated Bush to act on Katrina and the same thing that makes Obama perpetuate the Gulf spill. The private sector, on the other hand, has to act out of survival; for a disaster can bankrupt them and they do not have the power to compel you and I to pay.

Now, with that said... what motivates government to pay for your hip replacement out of the tax dollars it collects instead of diverting that money to union pension funds?

Grzmlyk| 6.14.10 @ 1:05PM

Agreed - I believe the role of Federal government should be to coordinate efforts, and to ponder solutions that might require cooperation between the states. But as usual, they should help to coordinate private industry. We've seen how ineffectual FEMA and Homeland security and the other 25 bureaucracies are.

What's more, Purplefool creates the fallacy of the false choice: He is conflating Limited Government with No Government, and then posits that the only effective government must ipso facto be unlimited.

I would call it sleight of hand, but Purple Guy is way too stupid to consciously manipulate logic. It's just his indoctrination showing.

George S| 6.14.10 @ 2:36PM

Indoctrination, indeed... I was thinking Public Education (tomayto-tomahto). We get these false choices all the time: you want your property taxes cut or keep police officers?

The Gulf situation is the finest example of an overbearing socialist-like government administration that cannot solve a problem because of the myriad of political implications to be navigated through. Can this get cap and trade passed? Can it rescind oil land exploration leases? Will it raise the price of gas making it easier to raise mileage standards? How can I get credit but not blame? Can I nationalize oil companies? Where's the political reward?

The fact that Obama is paralyzed by his ineptitude and has to resort in talking down his nose at BP and Governor Jindal (because they have solutions) gives pause to the believers of Big Government, making it painfully clear they can't do what they're supposed to do but are experts in doing things the Constitution tells them they have no business doing.

Purpleguy| 6.14.10 @ 3:57PM

Twist the argument any way you like... it doesn't change the fact that in time of need, we ALL turn to the Federal Government, even the States.

If not, then no one should care what the Obama administration is doing during the BP Oil Spill or what the Bush Administration did during Katrina.... limited government would have done little for either.

A strong central government is what Alexander Hamilton believed in and campaigned for (read the Federalist Papers and his treatise on Manufactures for further information), and once his philosophy was adopted, this country became the Superpower it is today. Once we stopped being "These United States" and became "The United States of America" our greatness became a reality. The partnership between Capitalism and a Democratic Government has been profound. And, you want to throw all what it means to be American away?

Grzmlyk| 6.14.10 @ 6:12PM

Hardy har har.

Have you read the federalist papers?

Because if you had, you would not be making the puerile arguments you are making.

Let me guess: You suck on the government teat for your livelihood.

Or you're one of this country's breathless graduate students, just champing at the bit to impose your idea of "fairness" on real taxpayers.

Purpleguy| 6.15.10 @ 12:20PM

Wrong on all accounts ... and I know you haven't read the Federalist Papers - only what others have told you are IN the Federalist Papers. Your lack of insightful commentary proves it! So, why don't you go read the "Papers" and understand them, if you can, for yourself.

If you had read them, you would realize that their prime author, Alexander Hamilton, did not agree with the limited government and state's rights tenets of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. The Government we have today is more like Alexander Hamilton's view than the others. And since the Civil War, limited government has gone by the wayside in favor of the Strong Central Government, which, along with our superior capitalistic economic model has created the greatest nation the world has ever seen! Yeah for the Founders, in particular, my hero, Alexander Hamilton! Without him, you would be living in a backwards nation with limited government, squabbling states and little opportunity. If you doubt that, show me a country with a limited government that has succeeded, evidenced by being a member of the G20, high industrial output, GDP, whatever measure you like. Then, go suck on that thought with your limited government ideas!

JmsA| 6.14.10 @ 4:00PM

Purpleturd, what gives? Didn't you once post that you supported Ronald Reagan? The oil platform accident occurred in FEDERAL WATERS!!! Hence, the responsibility of the Federal government to quickly act and mitigate the damage from the disaster--unlike Katrina, where the law mandated that the Federal government defer to the local authorities (democrats, Ray "Chocolate City" Nagin(g) and "the levies are just fine" Governor, Katherine Blanco). How is it that the Federal government is being torn down when it is the only sector adding jobs, and one of the largest set of regulations (2000+ pages of Obamacare) was just signed into law? By the way, did anyone tear down the Federal laws prohibiting illegal aliens entering the country, or is it just my imagination that the Federal government has and continues to shirk its responsibilities about the border, prompting AZ to enact its own border security law to protect its citizens? I know, I know: Bush did it, too. Well, guess what? There's a lot of things that Bush did that I didn't and don't agree with, and I strongly suspect many other folks who visit and post on this site, would agree with me. As always, 11/02/2010

Purpleguy| 6.14.10 @ 4:13PM

Yes, I did support Reagan - then. Well, it wasn't just Bush that ignored border control. Additionally, so did Reagan, who gave the amnesty to 3 Million illegals and started this mess, and Bush I, Clinton, Bush II and Obama now. So what? After looking back on the Reagan legacy - Amnesty for Illegals, Borrow and Spend fiscal irresponsibility, ignoring the AIDS crisis until it became an epidemic, Iran-Contra illegal arms for hostages trading, and on and on and on ... he really was likable, but doddering old fool that started the slide to where we are today.

Grzmlyk| 6.14.10 @ 6:22PM

So I figure you call yourself "purple guy" for one of four reasons:

1) You got tired of the "Liberal Reader" moniker;
2) You don't know how to spell sophist;
3) Your rage at capitalism and vitriolic bitterness that somewhere somebody wants to live free of your idea of how they should live leaves you purple-faced with rage;
3) Your visage is perpetually bruised because, even though reality keeps smacking you upside the head, you are constitutionally incapable of recognizing it.

So let me ask you: When you were a child - you DO remember back five years, don't you - when grown-ups asked you want you wanted to be when you grew up, did you say, "I want to be near smarter people who don't agree with my politics and fling shit at them all day long"?

Just wondering how the mind of a troll operates. Oops - my bad. You have no mind.

I'm sure you mother is real proud of your accomplishments. I mean, she probably figured you'd never master dressing yourself.

Come to think of it, you haven't.

Purpleguy| 6.15.10 @ 10:42AM

First of all, thank you for bringing my mother into this ... she is dead and I'm sure you're happy about that. It just reinforces the narrative that you have no heart and are no Christian, let alone American.

"I want to be near smarter people who don't agree with my politics and fling shit at them all day long"? " - I wonder why people want to gather together and hear from each other that share the same views to reinforce each other in their confidence that they are right? Does that smack of childish behavior and insecure to you? I would take issue with your 4 points, but in particular, the "rage at capitalism" comment. Capitalism has been a driving force toward America's greatness and prosperity. But it isn't the only institution that allowed us to succeed. It was the uniting of Government with Capitalism, not capitalism alone, that provided this country with the blessings we all enjoy.

Anyone with 1/2 a brain can see for themselves what happens when that union or partnership between Government and Capitalism breaks down. We just to look back at the recent Financial Meltdown of 2008 or more recently the BP Gulf Oil Spill of 2010. There are many other examples of lesser scale but no less important that point to the breakdown of that partnership (Lead paint in toys, melamine in pet food, Madoff scandal, etc. )

Also on display is what can be achieved when the partnership is sound - (the Transcontinental Railroad, the Interstate Highway System)

JmsA| 6.14.10 @ 10:48PM

Purpleturd,

Reagan signed the amnesty because of the Simpson-Mazzoli Immigration Act of 1986, according to which the democrat-led congress agreed to secure the southern U.S. border, which they never did by witholding the required funding.

Regarding Reagan's expenditures, quite a bit of it went to rebuilding our armed forces after all of the cuts to it by Jimmy Carter. In doing so, including his rebuilding of the Navy, etc., Reagan also deployed the tactical Pershing IIs nukes in Europe, etc. This rendered null the Soviet's conventional land force advantages. Reagan also came up with his Star-Wars initiative, which allowed him to negotiate from a position of strength, including "Trust but Verifty," as to the dupe treaty just signed by the One with Russians (not likely to be verified by the Senate any time soon). This compelled Gorbachev and the Soviet Politburo to negotiate further with Reagan, which led to the most comprehensive nuclear weapons reductions ever. Now, that's truly worthy of Nobel Peace Prize, as opposed to the prize awarded to the One by some dreamy-eyed, wishful thinking leftist Nordics, stemming from the meandering, pap-filled rhetoric from the former. I guess neither you nor they have realized that after all of the speeches and non-sense, the Muslims don't like us all that much still, and for that matter, neither do the Iranians nor the North Koreans. That's alright, though, I guess he meant well.

As to AIDS, I never heard of Reagan engaging in unconventional, high risk sexual practices, nor sharing contaminated syringes. Or for that matter donating contaminated blood to blood banks. Had you ever worked in hospital settings, as I did while attending college--where hemophiliac children, teenagers, and others dying from AIDS. through not fault of their own, signed their DNR (Do Not Resucitate) orders , you'd understand how insidiously stupid your comments about Reagan and AIDS truly are.

Absent the assistance from Reagan to the Contras, Nicaragua would be another communist hell hole, particularly had Tom Harkin (D) and John Kerry(D) managed to get their proposed funding of the Sandinistas approved by congress in 1979. Thankfully, that never came to pass, in light of what subsequently transpired: Following Nicaraguan Dictator Daniel Ortega's seizure of power in 1979, he quickly consolidated power through torture, imprisonment, executions, and the exiling of thousands of Nicaraguans. These included many of the non-conforming indigenous indians, whom were forcefully relocated, as the Sandinistas further consolidated their power by seizing private property, the media, banks and factories (sound familiar?), under the supervision of his socialist overseers Fidel Castro and the Kremlin with the help of thousands of Cuban advisors and troops. Part and parcel of this was also the particularly brutal treatment by the Sandinistas of said native Nicaraguan Indians, the Miskitos, many of whom subsequently filled the ranks of Contras. Ultimately, all of this came to a head in 1984 when Daniel Ortega held a fraudulent Presidential election and claimed victory, only to have the opposition boycot the election and take up arms--hence the Contras, the sole freedom-fighters in the conflict, whom without the help from Reagan no doubt would have been defeated, paving the way for another tyrannical socialist failure in Latin America. This, I suspect, given the tone and tenor of your tedious socialist rants, wouldn't have been such a bad thing, as was the spillover of the Nicaraguan civil war into El Salvador, where the resulting communist revolution claimed well over 75, 000 deaths, from 1980 to 1992. That said, before you get all huffy and puffy, I know there were excesses and atrocities committed by the ultra right wing elements in El Salvador, but don't forget that such were also committed by the other side, and absent the aid of the U.S., El Salvador would have also become, as did nearly Nicaragua, a communist dictatorship. And guess what, both El Salvador and Nicaragua are democratic, thanks to Reagan. By the way, before you accuse me of not knowing about what I have written herein, I am a fluent Spanish speaker, and I have worked through NGOs with many of those Nicaraguan refugees. I've seen socialism up close and personally, and it's not the pretty, rosy picture you and the rest of the One's acolytes so feverishly claim. So get your facts straight before you go ranting about something you don't know anything about. As always, 11/02/2010

Grzmlyk| 6.14.10 @ 11:22PM

JmsA, that was a thing of beauty.

Truly. Your command of the material is amazing, and your points so cogently and succinctly made.

Of course, PurpleTurd, like all liberals, isn't interested in the consequences of liberal policies, nor does history teach these people anything.

People like PurpleTurd - and the millions who still believe Obama is a force for good - will never be persuaded that theirs is an alternate reality. And that's why the fight for conservative truth is a perpetual struggle.

Please, since it is late, post this again the next time PurpleTurd spews his disinformation. My guess is you won't even have to wait 12 hours.

Seriously, GREAT post. Thank you.

JmsA| 6.15.10 @ 1:14PM

Thank you for your kind words, Grzmlyk.

JmsA| 6.14.10 @ 11:22PM

Apologies for a slight misrepresentation: The funding proposed by Tom Harkin and John Kerry in support of the Sandinistas did not come about until the mid 1980s.

Purpleguy| 6.15.10 @ 11:42AM

"Reagan signed the amnesty" - that is all. What happened to "Trust but Verify"... He had the same power Bush did to send National Guard to the border - he didn't. he screwed up at best.

"Reagan also came up with his Star-Wars initiative" - not quite the Apollo Moon Program was it? Since it has never proved operationally sound nor successful, it was a big BUST. More Billions upon Billions WASTED... Way to go, Gip!

"the Muslims don't like us all that much still, and for that matter, neither do the Iranians nor the North Koreans" - Oh, and you think the Russians like us any better either then, since or now because of Reagan? Are you kidding? Another Gipper Special!

"I never heard of Reagan engaging in unconventional, high risk sexual practices, nor sharing contaminated syringes. " - You never heard Reagan speak about AIDS, period. Even though one of his close buddies, Rock Hudson died of AIDS during Reagan's term! Amazing Gipology!

"hence the Contras, the sole freedom-fighters in the conflict, whom without the help from Reagan no doubt would have been defeated" - You left off 'Illegal Help', another hit by the Gipper... way to uphold the rule of law, Mr. Prez. Loser.

"I've seen socialism up close and personally, and it's not the pretty, rosy picture you and the rest of the One's acolytes so feverishly claim." - I only here about socialism from you types ... it's your own bogeyman .. not something I subscribe to. But Revisions of history WILL not be allowed. What you are proposing with your diatribe on Nicaragua and El Salvador is countenancing illegal behavior, as long as we get the result we want. Really? You condone Illegal behavior in your President? Really?

JmsA| 6.15.10 @ 2:37PM

Thank you for reading my posting.

chester arthur| 6.14.10 @ 11:17PM

To a rational mind(sorry,you get off here Purp)when the government says it controls something,it does have responsibility.They claim control of coastal waters,and therefore must be prepared to help when disaster strikes.If not,don't get in the way of state control,especially when state officials know what to do(like building barriers quickly).If strong central governments could 'fix any and all natural and man-made events',the Soviet sphere of influence would have been a pristine wonderland.It never was.Neither is China.Only free economies can afford and are willing to clean up the messes liberal enviromental idiocy causes(like having to drill in deep,hard to work in waters).

macdaddy| 6.14.10 @ 10:27AM

Sadly, you are correct. That is really the only valid interpretation. During Katrina, W, the racist, unfeeling, war-mongering profiteer was all of 2 days late getting rolling and he caught up quickly by slashing through red tape and beating on Congress to get things done. Obama the Magnificent goes and plays golf, all the while never deigning to even consider voiding one jot or tittle of the millions of federal regulations that are holding back the clean-up. Claiming incompetence at this point is entirely unbelievable.

Campy| 6.14.10 @ 11:32AM

Grz,
As usual, you've hit it.

I don't get/watch Fox News, but one thing: You stated: Kristol then said that, to the extent people disproved of the administration's response, it was more a repudiation of "obamaism" than Obama himself.

What's the difference? How does one separate the dancer from the dance? Or should I be asking Kristol??

Grzmlyk| 6.14.10 @ 12:00PM

You know, campy, the technology gods are smiling on me today - I've been able to post!

I was surprised Kristol said that - I think his point was that, while there has been a lot of sound and fury among the chattering classes about how Obama has wounded himself with this response, the polls do not in fact reflect any precipitous drop in the public's approbation of him (according to Kristol).

So I think he's saying that, to a great extent, the growing din of disapproval is for Obama's vision for government and not him personally.

Which I find to be wrong headed in the extreme. I agree with you - you cannot separate the dancer from the dance, espcially when the dancer is not only calling the tune, he brought in the orchestra.

I don't know - since a lot of liberal pundits have excoriated Obama for his Spill behavior (Maureen Dowd, Jon Stewart, Tom Friedman, Chris Matthews, et al), maybe Kristol is invoking the old "if your enemy is destroying himself, get out of the way" strategy.

For my part, I think I detected the tide turning - back toward Obama's favor. There was an almost imperceptible shift last week; I think people have accepted the spill, the urgency has been dulled and Obama will make his big speech tonight after which a lot of his former lib critics will declare his demons exorcised and, well, he's doing what he can (which is not true). I think this won't emasculate his presidency as the hostage crisis did for Carter.

Sadly, it looks more and more like Obama will survive this with a good portion of his mojo intact such that he can move on to pursue Cap and Trade.

So conservatives take their foot off of the accelerator at their peril.

And that's why I cannot fathom why some conservatives are pulling their punches - like I say, even Juan Williams noted it. O'Reilly has been in the tank for Obama from day one, but I think Hume was really chastened after his comment that Tiger Woods should renounce his tenuous Muslim faith and embrace Christianity. Hume got a ton of flak for that.

As for Kristol, I really don't get him. I hadn't noticed him pulling punches up until yesterday, so I was surprised.

Purpleguy| 6.14.10 @ 4:05PM

The public's repudiation of "Obamaism", if there is one, and I have my doubts, bis a direct result of the constant barrage of 1/2 truths, misinformation and downright lies promulgated by the media and the larger blogosphere - left, right and center.

Just as in this blogosphere, if I say one left-leaning thing, I am immediately labelled a communist or socialist, whatever. My arguments are twisted to fit what you want to argue against. I wish I had a $1 for every time someone puts words in my mouth, just to fit the argument THEY want to make. It would be nice to actually debate with someone who can stay on point and the topic I had argued for or against.

Obama, and to some extent, all Presidents are victims of the media narrative of the day. Many in the media are only looking for controversy and gotcha journalism, and in some cases will gin it up for themselves (Acorn, anyone). Anything sensational, so where there is none, they will create it, where it is small, they will magnify it. And, unfortunately, many people fall for that ... if you watch Fox News, you know what I mean.

scotchieguy| 6.14.10 @ 6:16PM

Purple, I am gonna be one of the few on this sight who actually agrees w/ you, at least as far as the media are concerned. Right now the MSM is a complete and utter joke. They are an embarrassment and an insult to our collective intelligence. If it bleeds it leads. Take the Helen Thomas incident. All anyone wanted to discuss was what a nut she was--no one wanted to discuss the real issue, which is the survival of Israel. No, this would be too taxing on our pea-sized brains. Plus, it would be bad for ratings, and thus profits, and it is the news "business" afterall, right?

As far as your political affiliation, I won't comment, and calling one names usually says more about the one calling the name. Suffice it to say, Limited Gov't and the free enterprise system united to make this the greatest and most prosperous nation in the history of the world. Of course you need regulation and laws, and yes these industries are in bed w/ the regulators; the problem is the Federal gov't--not just gov't in general--is stifling industry. It simply is too big and unweildy and inefficient to really do much good. This is true w/ AZ and illegal immigration. This is true w/ the military--whatever your views on the two wars, the waste and inefficiencies are staggering. This was true w/ Katrina. This was utterly true w/cash for clunkers. This will prove to be true w/ Obamacare. Everyone knows that the health care sys. is a mess. But throwing a 2000 page bill that no one read at it will just make things worse. Look at Britain. Look at Cuba. Look at Canada. These countries have all tried it and it was a colossal failure.

Pretty much everything the gov't does somehow ends up making it worse. Or more expensive. Or just plane wasteful. The beauty of the Constitution is it allows for limited federal intervention into the businesses of the respective states. The states know better, and if one state screws up, one can always move to another state. But if the Fed. Gov't controls everything, and then they screw up, where does one turn?

You don't even want to get me going on Obama. I think anyone who supports him has serious issues--delusional? White guilt? Total lack of knowledge of the guy? Braindead? Secretly hates this country and what it stands for? I'll never understand how this guy actually became president--oh well, I guess w/ a completely ignorant electorate, and an utterly useless media, anything is possible,

Purpleguy| 6.15.10 @ 12:01AM

Glad to hear you agree with me. I do have to take issue with your political philosophy tho.

"Limited Gov't and the free enterprise system united to make this the greatest and most prosperous nation in the history of the world. " - While true that capitalism and free enterprise were part of the equation that made us great, it wasn't Limited Government as their partner.

While we had limited government, progress in the country was slow and we might never have amounted to much other than a wealthy, but small presence in the world.

When the Federal Government changed around and after the Civil War and we changed from "These United States" to "The United States", the partnership between a strong central government and capitalism began.

That partnership begat the Transatlantic Passenger Service started with a contract from the Congress to the Transcontinental Railroad in which the Federal Government employed eminent domain to acquire the land to provide the right of way to Anti-trust Laws to the Federal Reserve (Alexander Hamilton wanted it) to the Interstate Highway System to the Apollo Moon Mission the partnership was nurtured and continued. Sometimes friendly, often times adversarial.

The result was that in the 1880's until the 1980's that partnership created the Greatest Middle Class, with the most prosperous population the world has ever seen. Along the way, some social programs were born out of necessity during the New Deal and the Great Depression and out of a moral sense of America with the Great Society.

Unfortunately, the pendulum swung too far toward the Government. That begat us Ronald Reagan. Ostensibly, Reagan was for limited government. In reality, he expanded government and gave amnesty to 3 Million illegals who's legacy we are living with today, in AZ in particular. Reagan also put us on the borrow and spend path to bankruptcy ("Deficits don't matter", he once said and that was echoed by Dick Cheney later). The borrow and spend conundrum was continued by Bush I and especially by Bush II. Obama continues that trend.

Without the partnership between government and capitalism, we would never have become the world power we are today. The did that together and with the American DNA for hard work and entrepreneurship we live in the greatest country the world has ever seen ... and that was not done by Limited Government!

scotchieguy| 6.17.10 @ 1:46AM

Purple, you make some good points. However, I disagree on a number of them. First, you are right about gov't and bus. in bed together. The RR's in the 19th century are a classic example. It was a symbiotic relationship. Even the moon shot later was a good and even desireable result...same w/ interstate hyw sys...

However, as of late, the Fed gov't has become so burdensome that I believe it is doing a major disservice to free enterprise. Perfect example--oil in the gulf; what has O wrought here? Instead of going after BP, and they are guilty as hell, he has quite literally trashed the entire industry in the gulf...soon, all of those rigs (and they have been relatively safe--only two major wrecks in 70 years in the gulf) will haul ass out of the gulf into more "environmentally friendly" waters like West Africa, China and S. America. This will be a huge hit to our already high unemployment in the USA. Just plain short-sighted thinking on the part of the prez.

One other thing--I heard that after the Exon-Valdez spill, the oil cos. agreed to a $75 mil. cap on liability in case of a spill in exchange for the Feds telling them where they could drill. So they drilled deeper--5000 ft deeper...out of sight, out of mind until...ooops, a spill...now we all pay.

scotchieguy| 6.14.10 @ 5:37PM

No!!! Don't say O is gonna pull a "Clinton" and recover from this. The only thing more demoralizing than watching that oil spew everyday is for O to get back on his horse and continue his pillaging. The media is utterly incapable of seeing this fraud for who he is. That is what is so frustrating. They were the same w/ Clinton. Can you imagine if this happened under W?

As for the three you mentioned--they all are rino's, and O'Reilly is the worst. He is still so pleased w/ himself after his little interview w/ O during the campaign. Fox News is really no different from the others--alot of entertainment, fluff, and a few more blondes.

loulou| 6.14.10 @ 1:46PM

Bill Kristol was an early supporter of John McCain. He is a supporter of amnesty for illegal aliens. Enough said.

Fox News is partially owned by a Saudi. Brit Hume knows who butters his bread.

FTM| 6.15.10 @ 6:53AM

I got a real problem with President Obama's reaction to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

First there was the EPA's published "Fire Boom" contingency plan that wasn't implemented. Surround the spill with miles and miles of floating boom and set the mess on fire. Why wasn't this plan implemented?

The state of Maine offered a couple thousand miles of boom and the federal government turned them down.

The sand dyke plan that wasn't pmplemented because the EPA wouldn'd grant approval. Again why not?

Exxon (I believe, maybe Shell) suggested surrounding the spill with tankers and oil booms and suctioning up the oil. The "Dances with Wolves guy had forty centerfuges sitting on the beach designed for the specific use of seperating oil from water and the federal government failed to act.

Lastly but not leastly, oil is worth seventy how many dollars a barrel? What happened to the idea that you can get in a boat, go out on the water and scoop up a fortune that's just laying around for anyone who comes along with a hat full of brains to pick up? I can build an oil/water seperator with plumbing fittings from freekin' Lowes.

The oil spill is emphatically not President Obama's fault. The total absense of response from the federal government is President Obama's fault.

"We have our foot on the neck of BP" of some statement or another to that effect simply exposes President Obama to be the "South Side of Chicago Welfare Class Rabble Rousing Street Thug" that he is.

Anthony| 6.14.10 @ 9:48AM

When you are as accomplished as Mr. Obama is, with the multitude of achievements to his credit, of course he can look down his nose at us, you silly people.
Only kidding folks, but you knew that, right?
Grzmlyk is right, we are in deep trouble. With 1/2 the country is with its head up its butt, and conservative media giving Obama a pass to show how "fair and balanced" they are, we are in deep dodo.
Both Hume and Kristol were so unbelievably obtuse yesterday, that I almost went to MTP. Chris Wallace almost made me throw my coffee cup at the TV, when he opened the segment with Fiona with the Boxer hair comment. Wallace should substitute for Oprah and get off FOX.
Folks, we are on our own. Our"conservative" leaders in government and the media aren't worth a bucket of warm spit.

scotchieguy| 6.14.10 @ 7:46PM

Who taught Chris Wallace to speak? This article is about O and his weird delivery, but now I'm reminded of how strange and supercillious Wallace's delivery is---"On tuuues--day, Congress will reconveeene, unless due to the oil spill, it will be forced into another de-laaaay. This is Chris Wallace for FOX nooooz." He kind of speaks w/ his nose in the air, but it is more of a vocal thing...just listen to him w/ out the picture...they all do it, because they are the "Hah-vud educated elite...and only theeey know what's best for us loooosers," but Wallace is worse. Also what is this thing w/ "Pock-as-tahn" instead of "Pakistan?" Obama does it constantly--oh, your are so cosmopolitan, great one! Are we not Americans? Just drives me nuts--phonies.!

Ken (Old Texican)| 6.14.10 @ 9:50AM

GRZ
Thanks! Well said!

Doctor Right| 6.14.10 @ 9:52AM

NEWSFLASH:

Obama is an egotistical, narcissistic prick!

(What? You already knew that?? Since 2007??? D'oh...TASONLINE just got scoopped again...)

ENOUGH ROPE| 6.14.10 @ 9:55AM

Barack, the Smiling Cobra!

Maddox| 6.14.10 @ 10:09AM

Those of us who have opposed the actions regarding policy of Obama have been accused of racism on many occasions. They are wrong. We are not bothered because his skin is black, we are concerned because his heart is.

Campy| 6.14.10 @ 11:45AM

Maddox, NICE!
May I quote you to those in need of a reality check?

Maddox| 6.14.10 @ 7:46PM

Yes, of course. If we can help more people understand this, maybe we can save America.

Gretchen| 6.14.10 @ 3:20PM

It's not the cafe-au-lait of Obama's complexion that bothers me -- it's the incarnadine hue of his politics!

Harry Flashman| 6.14.10 @ 10:10AM

Authenticity is perhaps the most important character trait that the American people require of their national leaders. That you are who you say you are and truly believe in what you say you believe in and are not a phony or a hypocrite.

There is a growing widespread speculation that the current president's actual biological father is the CPUSA member and radical agitator Frank Marshall Davis, rather than the Kenyan Barack Obama "Sr." The evidence to support this theory is easily available to those who care to look for it. The memoir of Davis that details his sexual relationship with a woman named "Ann" that began when she was underage, the documented close association of Davis with Stanley Dunham, the poem "Pop" and perhaps most telling, even a cursory comparison of photographs of the current president with photographs of Davis and the Kenyan.

Have the so-called "birthers" got hold of the wrong end of the stick, so to speak? Is this the real reason why the original typewritten long form birth certificate has never been released or allowed to be subjected to any sort of scrutiny, despite several years of repeated requests by numerous individuals and media organizations?
If releasing this original typewritten long form birth certificate, which is known to exist and is in a state government vault in Hawaii, would finally put an end to this growing speculation once and for all, why hasn't it been done? What is being hidden and why are they hiding it?

Use a search engine to easily find the evidence for this speculation and compare the photographs. Decide for yourself whether this theory has any possible merit. Suggest that others to do the same. Spread the word if you believe that character, integrity and authenticity are important to you in an American president.

Purpleguy| 6.14.10 @ 10:22AM

Yep, another conspiracy theory is what we need. the word 'retarded' comes to mind ...

Lullaby's, Legends and Lies| 6.14.10 @ 11:25AM

I'm sure the word "retarded" comes to mind every morning, when you look in the mirror!!

Curtis Rasmussen| 6.14.10 @ 11:34AM

Purp,

You have descended to the 4 year old throwing a tantrum in the corner. Listen, to your elders, shut up and take your punishment.

Purpleguy| 6.14.10 @ 2:56PM

As is typical of the elder - do as I say, not as I do .. I reject the premise that elder means smarter or better or more profound. The punishment will be by the younger on the elder who ruined this country for us - starting with Borrow and Spend Reagan, Bush I and Bush II. If you don't like Obama, then you must not have liked them either!

Curtis Rasmussen| 6.14.10 @ 3:39PM

Can everyone see the danger of this comment? Purpleturd does not want to follow the example of past generations, the ones that made this country great, including Reagan and the long years of unbroken prosperity that followed. Instead, he wants to ignore our elders and refashion the country as he sees fit.

Just another marxist douchebag. Hey numbnuts, Obama is in a category all to himself. That asshole has quadrupled the debt with no end in sight. His elitism and narcissitic, jaw-dropping arrogance knows no bounds.

Purpleguy| 6.15.10 @ 12:10AM

Deficits don't matter - don't you know that? Both Reagan and Dick Cheney said that. And, I hate to burst your bubble, but this country was the greatest on earth long before Reagan was president or even thought about being president. We survived the Borrow and Spend Reagan and the Bushes and we'll survive Obama's borrow and spend trend as well. Maybe now you'll vote for Hillary!

Purplewhore needs a life| 6.14.10 @ 12:04PM

Who let Purpleguy aka Barney The Dinosaur in?
(his arguments amount to Barney's without the goofy laugh)

Or maybe he's the purple Teletubbie?

Naw, just a SEIU freakazoid feeding off the trough of taxpayers and hard working Americans who belong to the same insipid union but have no choice.

Here's to you waking up in the middle of the night, over and over, and a thought pops up in your head:

What the hell am I doing with my life? I'm a loser!

John II| 6.14.10 @ 10:18AM

Grzmlyk's right, as usual, and the efforts to bend over backwards to cut the creepy Professor some slack is, at heart, a form of moral posturing.

But I'm interested in the body language topic that started this thread. I mean, come to think of it, the last Democrat in the White House whose body language didn't seem contrived or inadvertently offensive was Harry Truman.

Kennedy was the first celebrity president, and his particular affectation was the wind-blown look in support of an intellectual pose. Johnson, a crook in his own right, carried himself as if aspiring to the image of Willy Loman: calculated vulgarity. Carter perfected the simpering smile apparently as self-assured cover for his shifty insecurity, but his ordinary gestures were a strange mixture of Nixonian stiffness and Fordian clumsiness. Clinton harkened back to Johnson in the vulgarity of his capacious gestures, but the contrived tone of slightly croaking sincerity was always counterpointed by distant and cold eyes.

In other words, Clinton anticipated our current narcissist-in-chief, in every gesture of whom the moral trouble of our culture is on full display. Apparently only about 54 percent of the general population (and perhaps five percent of the media population) can see it.

And THAT is sure-enough scary.

Bram| 6.14.10 @ 10:47AM

Chris Muir has nailed Obama perfectly in "Day by Day".

http://www.daybydaycartoon.com/2010/06/13/

Petronius| 6.14.10 @ 10:49AM

Time to pause and contemplate what occurred when Rome fell.

Heatpacker| 6.14.10 @ 10:51AM

Purpleguy has a big ol' man-crush on Barack. Isn't it cute?

David Singhiser| 6.14.10 @ 11:20AM

As an ex-teacher, he sounds like a typical bad teacher who drones on and on in front of his students without an ounce of empathy for them. Then, he got promoted and became a vice-principal, "This will not be tolerated." Can't you just see him lecturing the student body after some prank?

Campy| 6.14.10 @ 11:38AM

Lecturing is right... and if he wags another Bill Clinton finger at me, think I'm gonna scream. Again. What is it with modern-day, faux liberals and this demeanor?

scotchieguy| 6.14.10 @ 7:53PM

He loves to scold. He is another miserable professor pretending to be prez--like Woodrow Wilson, the inventer of progressivism.

Ryan Bayne| 6.14.10 @ 11:39AM

I'm from the UK and I think your talking such a lot of bollocks. It's so petty and besides after the last few hundred years maybe a black man should put white men under him see how you like it. It is dam racist to suggest his heart is black, its one of the most racist things I've heard in years and I've been in the army. Are your hearts not white or are you multiculturallyhearted. I'm white by the way and British politics for the last 4 years has been filled with these type of petty comments. Every little negative thing blown up a bit because theres nothing real to get hold of. The fact that Americans do it on this scale online, just goes to show you are no further forward in civility than the worst of the world.

John II| 6.14.10 @ 12:19PM

You're forgetting that Professor Obama nurses a particularly acute animus against you Brits, Brit.

In other words, the President of the United States is, so to speak, a colossally petty man. Given the likely consequences of pettiness at the highest reaches of power, is it petty to point out his pettiness?

It is damn stupid to blather about racism when we're talking about character. What do you have against black people, Brit? Why don't you hold blacks to higher standards?

Old Soldier| 6.14.10 @ 12:24PM

Be advised, Mr. Bayne, we are trying to avoid flushing our country down the toilet the way the Brits already have.

Nobody here has talked about race, but your “multicultural” indoctrination kicked in automatically as soon as anyone criticizes a black man. Come back when the brain-washing wears off.

Grzmlyk| 6.14.10 @ 1:26PM

What was your position in the army?

Let me guess: fencepost in some barracks.

I believe that would be commensurate with your intellect.

John II| 6.14.10 @ 10:50PM

That's getting rather personal, Grzmlyk. I envision the Brit's "position" as a bit more flaccid than you suppose. Really: what IS there about Obama enthusiasm and sexual inversion? Why are the two so closely connected? So to speak.

Petronius| 6.14.10 @ 2:38PM

You ruined your own country and now you want to see Obama do to us what Mugabe has done to Rhodesia. Bugger off!!!

Maddox| 6.14.10 @ 7:53PM

"A black heart" refers to evil within a person, not his race.

Do you not believe a black man can be evil or do you expect us to give him a pass for horrible governance because he is black?
Wouldn't that be true racism?

I do not care what color his skin is, he is intentionally damaging the country we love and we will not sit by and allow it without fighting for our tradition and freedom. It is my contention he is more "red" than any other color.

scotchieguy| 6.14.10 @ 7:59PM

Didn't the UK once have a PM named Neville Chamberlain? Well, he's our version of Mr. Appeaser.

Purpleguy| 6.15.10 @ 12:04AM

We don't all feel that way ... but this is a libertarian, small government, leave me alone type of weblog site. And, yes there are racists and petty squabbles on here, but add what you can to the debate. It's healthy for them to hear another opinion...

rdman| 6.14.10 @ 11:45AM

Behind the facade, Obami is completely ruthless, despotic and tyrannical, oppressing people, violating their constitutional rights, their freedoms and their dignity.

The law of the Chicago streets gives Obami the perverted rationale for using intimidation and force when it suits his ends. He believes he is a law unto himself, cynically living in the world of realpolitik where what matters is having the might to prevail, regardless of right or wrong.

It is impossible to be friendly with and dangerous to trust a person like Obami, since he takes every sign of friendliness or cooperation as a sign of weakness and therefore as an invitation to take advantage of others. Treacherous and immoral, Obami has absolutely no compunction about lying, cheating, stealing or reneging on his promises. He will resort to any unconstitutional illegality or ruse to get what he wants. He will blatantly and outrageously lie repeatedly so endlessly and vehemently that it begins to be accepted as the truth. The smallest hint of opposition from others will bring an avalanche of retaliation from him.

Obami is able to destroy because he does not identify with anyone else. His egocentricity allows him to see only himself in the country, and if the country does not reflect him, he will eventually hate the country so much that he will attempt to destroy it.

To quote the philosopher Hillel, “If you are not for yourself, who will be? But if you are for yourself alone, what are you?”

Jeff Perren| 6.14.10 @ 11:58AM

"I am not an ideologue."

He should not be so proud of this statement. It's intended to imply that he is not a dogmatist. In reality, it means that someone has no consistent philosophy, adheres to no principles, sees every new fact as wholly unprecedented and learns nothing from experience.

In a word, that is Pragmatism and it is one of the fundamental causes for everything that is wrong in America today.

Mojo Risin| 6.14.10 @ 12:08PM

Obama ubiquitously looking down his nose, is his way of reading TOTUS and that coupled with his appearing arrogant is his defense mechanism kicking-in, it's his way of trying to convince American's he is up-to-it. Man is the dude a fraud!!! He's aware, I feel, as to his limitations, he's smart enough to know that. Obama is in sooo far over his head his soultions to current problems are worn-out leftist ones, proven not to work, hence proving he's never read enough real history to put into a thimble.

His claiming not to be an ideologue is laughable. I wouldn't be surprised if the guy had a tattoo of Karl Marx on his tuckus, hidden under his boogie board trunks.

Mojo Risin| 6.14.10 @ 12:18PM

I've got to mention this: Ideology is OK, given it's an ideology that's directed in a positive way and Obama's speaks for itself. What has Barack done for America to affect it's citizens in a positive way? NOTHING!!! It's a disgrace Obama was elected President of The United States, Jeremiah Wright is proud.

Sam Vaughn| 6.14.10 @ 12:16PM

Every time I write something optimistic about the future of the United States, I hear from some doomsayers who assure me things will never get any better. Pessimistic conservatives say we’re locked into a death spiral, at the mercy of a system running on autopilot and programmed to crash. I also hear from some liberals who maintain there is no morally acceptable alternative to unsustainable Big Government, so we’re honor-bound to hold our course… right into the giant iceberg of insolvency approaching off the port bow.

I maintain my optimism by rejecting the ideas serving as the pillars of apathy.

I refuse to believe government programs launched in the Forties, Sixties, and Seventies are indestructible features of our lives, immune to repeal or reform. I don’t believe a nation with a 234-year history of courage and industry is destined to suffocate in a shallow pool of nanny-state cement, poured only a few generations ago. It will be difficult for the American giant to rise again… but history unfolds in the space between difficult and impossible.

There is no such thing as eternal legislation. Even the Constitution can be amended. It’s only a question of how much willpower it will take for us to cast aside the intolerable acts of our political class. We are descended from men who showed great vigor in resisting intolerable acts.

I don’t believe the American electorate is a hopeless mass of imbeciles and parasites. Of course, we’ll always have plenty of both… along with a breathtaking population of hard workers, visionaries, and heroes. It’s terribly short-sighted to write off a populace that ignores its expensive media apparatus and fills the streets for Tea Party rallies – joining people loudly accused of racism to denounce a supposedly inevitable system of total State control, run by a man they were taught it was sinful to oppose. The allegedly stupid proletariat of the United States just made Friedrich Hayek’s 66-year-old masterpiece, The Road to Serfdom, Number One on the Amazon.com bestseller list. Our fellow citizens are thinking, and questioning. Questions are acid to statism.

I reject the notion that politicians are universally corrupt and treacherous, leaving the voters with no meaningful power but to select the next batch of crooks to rob them blind. There are some men and women of true character and integrity in public offices throughout the land. There should be more of them. We should demand it. Throwing up our hands and accepting the notion that all of them are charlatans set the bar low enough for a useless “community organizer” with a shady past to stumble over it. It’s what got us trillion-dollar spending bills full of vague assumptions and lies, pushed by a government that has no serious plans beyond making itself larger. It’s how we ended up with a chief executive who only bothers to come into the office long enough to write himself a bigger budget, and looks honestly stunned when his country expects him to do something productive, or even take their side in an international debate.

A country of three hundred million is entitled to demand a few hundred honest men and women step forward to accept the responsibility of serving as representatives. We can also insist on patriotic leaders who view their seats as high honors, not stepping stones to their dream jobs as General Secretary of Earth.

Above all, I reject the essential premise of statism: the belief that we don’t need each other.

This is the distilled essence of Obama liberalism, which teaches us to look to the State for our needs, instead of seeking the voluntary cooperation of our fellows. Draining money from the private sector is a means of limiting our ability to work together. It damages our ability to generate wealth by finding opportunities for mutually beneficial trade. Nationalized and subsidized industries represent the forced reversal of our decision to avoid doing business with certain companies. You paid a lot of money to General Motors this year, even if you’ve never driven a GM car in your life.

There is a message hissing through the static of bailouts, moratoriums, takeovers, and mandates filling the past year. The code for that message was written in the pages of the New Deal and Great Society. It says we’re foolish to offer our services to each other, or invest in each other’s designs. Only the State can be trusted. Only compulsive force can resolve the great challenges facing us. The State requires all of us, and it’s the only thing any of us needs.

The apathetic victims who accept that message are sitting around Hoping for Change, instead of hiring each other to get things done. Free men and women exploit opportunities, instead of waiting for rescue. The cause of our double-digit unemployment is a shortage of opportunity, not a surplus of workers. Everyone standing in those unemployment lines is a potential producer, consumer, and investor. The job market only looks like an insoluble problem to people who think the State creates jobs.

I know that we do need each other. We will find each other, guided by the invisible hand of the marketplace, once we’ve disposed of the all-too-visible foot flopping around on the beaches of Louisiana, blindly searching for an ass to kick. We will remember that our highest laws were written to restrain the government, not its citizens. Watching the Democrats heave the ObamaCare Etch-a-Sketch for another shake will help us rediscover the value of private contracts, and the honesty of fair competition.

A great deal more than this Presidency is in the process of failing. Dismantling the bankrupt system we’ve accepted for our entire lives won’t be easy, and success is not guaranteed, but I see plenty to be optimistic about. Nothing prompts Americans to create alternatives faster than angry politicians insisting there aren’t any.

Doc Zero

Campy| 6.14.10 @ 2:03PM

Doc, you give definite pause and I like your prescription. While I applaud your refusal to accept the easy pessimism I'm prone to, methinks, in part, you underestimate the change in the warp and weave of social fabric and its lethargy.

Wonderful to read of the Amazon best-seller list, but that's fueled by those INTERESTED in engaging, questioning and determining their course, rather than whole generations raised in an entitled and nannied state where diversion technology feeds their minds and souls, rather than ideas and dreams. They're not stupid proles, but a burgeoning population with no sense of history, no sense of honor, no sense of wonder of what could be, beyond the feel-good, self-esteem moment because they've not been taught such. And coupled with (my own personal ongoing beef) the lack of fortitude from MSM to report without agenda and oleaginous (that current-events apropos word is in honor of Grz!) worship, how to learn anything different?

Indeed, our highest laws were written to restrain government, but like 'classically liberal' mentioned in several posts above, they've been hijacked. Your idea of needing and hiring each other to get things done is admirable, but it's not that easy when government regulates, strangles and confuses business into a semi-permanent standby mode; what and how to invest in/tool up for if you don't know what the game rules are. Do you 'just do it' and risk seizure by the IRS?

Bottom line is, I like your thoughts and they are encouraging, but there are no simplistic answers however inspiring. We're in a war for not only our country and freedoms, but for ideology worth conserving.

Only thing is, predictably like an addict, we'll probably need to hit bottom first before we get shocked into climbing back up and out of this mess.

Ken (Old Texican)| 6.14.10 @ 2:08PM

Doc Zero,
Thank you for that. AMEN!

Comic| 6.14.10 @ 12:33PM

He looks down his nose a lot! There is a cartoonist who depicts this perfectly at the "drawfortruth" wordpress site.

blueguy| 6.14.10 @ 1:15PM

wonderful post's by Sam Vaughn, Grzmlyk,and Harry Flashman! p.s. why blueguy,well I've been holding my breath waiting on the list you asked for from purpleguy

scotchieguy| 6.14.10 @ 8:15PM

Scotchieguy likes the fact that Blueguy has a problem w/ Purpleguy.

tj| 6.14.10 @ 1:25PM

To purple guy: it's know nothing, not no nothing... must be one of those great public school educations?

Purpleguy| 6.14.10 @ 10:00AM

Since you weren't there and no nothing but what others told you, how do you know the police did not act stupidly?

dw| 6.14.10 @ 1:34PM

As we are in the fight of our lives for the re taking of our country we must understand that someone like the purple idiot must be ignored and isolated. By even slightly entertaining his drivel we give them credence of responce, and reenforcement of their veiw. He is among the anti americans disguised as granny attempting to eat red riding
hood. You do not debate the wolf you destroy it. This is done with elections by driven patriots. The left in this country must become beyond irrelavent and sent into hiding again, only this time those who could not recognize their evil before will better know that smell when inhaled next time. Their exposure for what they really are may be the only silver lining during this most deplorable time in our history. They may never go away for after all stupidity is a rampant virus with no cure.
Do not insult your intelligence by debating sophist fools obsessed with foriegn ideologies. Since we have that in power now concentrate your efforts on educating and bringing into the fold those who are still capable of intelligent understanding and have not succumbed to the shallowness of a proven failed philosophy. We are unique in this world and as such can and will defend our founders gift with pride and conviction. The purple idiot is nothing more than a cartoon villian.

Purpleguy| 6.14.10 @ 9:05PM

Wow, what an American you are ... did you miss that part of being an American and FREE SPEECH ... ? You're neofascist position is disgusting to every American bone.

GavInTucson| 6.14.10 @ 11:53PM

Free speech? Having read DW's post twice, to be sure, I can't seem to find where he says liberals need to be silenced. Ignored? Yes. Silenced? No. There's a big difference.

Besides, liberals do the country a great service when they open their mouths and yell from the highest mountain what they really (really) stand for.

People like us love our country. People like you claim to love your country when, in reality, you really seem to love what you think you can "transform" it into. Or, to use the words of your idle, "fundamentally transform."

Purpleguy| 6.15.10 @ 12:28AM

You don't love your country, you love only yourself and want the country to make everyone see and think things your way. BTW - is standing for Free Speech a bad thing? I presume you are oblivious to the fact that the gap between the haves and have-nots has gotten wider in the last 30 years? With concentration of wealth continuing into the top 1% of the country, the middle class is being wiped out. It is the Great Middle Class that created the Superpower you see today. If restoring that Middle Class is transformative, so be it. Reversing the damage done by Bush II and less so by Bush I and Reagan will take a herculean effort. But, never fear - you will be the recipient and be able to enjoy the fruits of that transformation.

Just for the record, it was Paul Volcker's tight monetary policy that brought us out of the High Inflationary '70's, not Reagan's borrow and spend fiscal policy.

I find it remarkable that the very people that don't think much of the government or don't even trust the government are sooo interested in being elected to government posts. Why is that? I think the evidence is overwhelming that once there, they plan to stay and maintain the government status quo. They tell all of you what you want to hear and then go about doing whatever THEY want. That was so on display during Bush's years ... but it was always so. Remember the 1994 Contract with America? How much of that was enacted? How much stayed and changed America? It was lot of hooey and y'all fell fer it.... And, now we have the Tea Baggers - another set of promises to not keep... Evidence is in the hiding of Rand Paul and the remaking of Sharron Angle. Why have we not heard from them and on their so-called principles? They are being scrubbed for prime-time, that's why, so they can buffalo you again. 11/02/10, can't wait to put you all back in your place. You're all getting a little uppity, don't you think?

FTM| 6.15.10 @ 7:34AM

Purpleguy,

The last I heard one in four citizens of the United States of America work for the government at the federal, state or local level. Now, with all of the latest economic upset I would suspect that this number is higher but will refrain from speculating as to a more exact number. Add to this number the number of people living on the public dole. This number of people in total not participating in a wealth generating activity is unsustainable.

I would suggest as a countermeasure to this problem uf unsustainability abolishing the federal corporate income tax. Abolishing the federal corporate income tax of 35% would result in lower cost consumer goods and the relocating of manufacturing back to the United States. Business would boom. We'd be sending busses to Mexico to recruit workers.

Of course we'd have to round up and shoot the Sierra Club first.

I did a research project on my own when the price of gasoline hit $4.00 per gallon. According to the department of energy with gasoline at $4.00 per gallon the actual cost of production is in the neighborhood of $0.45 per gallon. There is a big diffence between $0.45 and $4.00. The difference is of course profit margin, about 5.0% perhaps, more likely 3.0% and the effect of cumulative taxes every time that the commodity changes hands. A guy pumps the oil out of the ground and in turn sells it to a guy with a truck that hauls the oil to a refinery. The guy that pumps the oil, one way or another factors in his tax burden. At the end of the year if the guy that pumps the oil out of the ground has a dollar in his hand then his customer, the guy with the truck, paid his taxes. Same with the guy with the truck at the refinery. At the end of the year if the guy with the truck has a dollar in his hand then the refinery paid his taxes. This "customer paying the taxes" meme stops at the pump with the end user paying the accumulated tax burden of the commodity, gasoline in this case, from the ground to the pump. By my math the government at the federal, state and local levels are getting between $2.00 and $3.00 per gallon in taxes and the amount that they're skimming isn't enough, we're still running fiscal deficits.

Do you get that? We're still running fiscal deficits. There are too many people in the cart and not enough people pulling the cart.

This isn't a Democrat or a Republican problem, it's an American problem. Our renegade political process has plundered the wealth of the greatest society that the human race has produced and it isn't enough.

I would suggest a return to administration of the federal government based on a strict, literal reading of the constitution. That and seriously re-considering who we let vote in this country. I prefer the Colonial Virginia idea in that the folks that pay the bills are the folks that decide how to spend the money. The state of Florida allowing criminal convicts to vote being an example of how far the system as oscillated out of control.

I just love listening to people advocating another tax on corporate profits. "Screw me! Screw me!" 80% of the population of this planet is too stupid to talk to.

scotchieguy| 6.17.10 @ 1:59AM

Plus, corporations don't pay taxes, they merely pass them on to the price of doing business--ah, the cost of the product??? Duh. Econ 101

Liberal Reader| 6.14.10 @ 9:31PM

You have purpleguy almost figured out. He wants to be more than a cartoon villain but he is not that bright.

Son Of Sam| 6.14.10 @ 9:47PM

Maybe Purplenutz could be one of the really stupid cartoon villains, like "Mumbles" or "FlatTop".
Btw,if the TelePrompter is such a godamned brainiac, how come NO ONE knows what his grades were at Harvard? If they were straight As, wouldn't it be on the White House website? Wouldn't all the "journalists" out there be getting tingly feelings? Wouldn't purpleguy have run out of hand lotion by now?

stand strong until freedom dawns
Son Of Sam

Liberal Reader| 6.14.10 @ 9:31PM

You have purpleguy almost figured out. He wants to be more than a cartoon villain but he is not that bright.

tj| 6.14.10 @ 1:48PM

Google Crime Inc... vote these courruptocrats out in November

plaidunicorn| 6.14.10 @ 1:51PM

I'm sure Obama shows a lot of emotion when it is warranted. For example, I bet he gets extremely upset when his ball ends up in a sand trap.

Bon V| 6.14.10 @ 2:14PM

I've felt for a long time that, technically, Obama may be a citizen, but that he is not truly of America. As an example, McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone , but was surrounded by America, in the sense that his father was a Naval admiral and so McCain was immersed in America from the start. Obama's sad background is nothing close to that. In fact, his closest male adult mentor in Hawaii was a communist.

My great hope is that the majority of the electorate has come to its senses and will never ever again fall for a good looking face with a charming smile and a sleek campaign, and that young voters have realized that just because someone is into the latest technology that means he/she will be a good leader. It was so 'tail wagging the dog" in this past election and frankly, it was horrible to watch so many being taken in by the superficialities.

JP| 6.14.10 @ 2:33PM

"I refuse to believe government programs launched in the Forties, Sixties, and Seventies are indestructible features of our lives, immune to repeal or reform."

Refuse all you want. But, as we speak the GOP senators are taking small steps to lower expectations of ObamaCare repeal. The RNC and the GOP leadership of both Houses are running from the issue. So what if by some miracle we win back contorl of both Houses. By this time next year, the GOP led Congress will ensure that all of the worst parts of ObamaCare will remain. Scott Borwn and his little insurrection will be forgotten, and the Lugars, Collins, and Grahams of the GOP will be bragging about thier bi-partisanship.

And yes the GOP will again return to its vomit in 2012 by nominating either Mitt R. or Pawlenty.

Bon V| 6.14.10 @ 2:38PM

JP, you can go back to your liberal friends and websites and let the grown ups talk here.

Kenneth E. MacAlister Jr.| 6.14.10 @ 5:18PM

Bon V, JP is no leftist & he's right. I've read his posts in past columns & he is no leftist. A realist, but no leftist. Ignoring the truth about the GOP "leadership" won't make it go away. If the GOP does not come away with huge wins in November it will be due to their inept "leadership" & spinelessness. Thanks JP for hitting an important nail square on the head. Bon V, blind trust in the GOP "leadership" helped give us Oilbama. Sorry to burst your bubble, but it's the truth. Take care & GOD bless!

Purpleguy| 6.14.10 @ 9:07PM

November is looking a lot bluer than I thought it would be ...

ds80| 6.14.10 @ 9:32PM

's ok ... Obamacare will pay for your blues. No, scratch that: it will be repealed after the November elections. The question I have is when will Obama seek treatment for impotence.

Purpleguy| 6.15.10 @ 12:14AM

Blue as in Blue States .. dildoe...

ds80| 6.15.10 @ 7:36AM

What made you choose the term "dildoe" [sic] and not "poo-poo head"? I'm just trying to figure out the adolescent mind.

NJK| 6.14.10 @ 2:59PM

He has ice water running through his veins. I can't listen to him, or watch him. I just want to go up to him, and say, hey idiot, we're down here.
His demeanor is a lot like Juran Vandersloot. Watching him on TV tomorrow, would be like watching Vandersloot, say he didn't kill anyone. It makes my skin crawl. Both psychopaths, Vandersloot, ruined the lives of several people, Obama is ruining an entire nation, and much of the world.

TomP| 6.14.10 @ 3:27PM

The President appeared on a talk show yesterday and assured us that "We have this under control"...well, not really. That was Axelrod, the co-president, who along with Rahm has given permission for their "frontman" Barak to again assail us with how well he has done and how poorly G. Bush did.
I sincerely hope "Purpleguy" is young, he writes like he may be 18 or 19. My reasoning is like this..he and the other folks who love the Obama brand of coolaide will have the next (approx) 40 years to pay for it. They will be honored I'm surer to contribute at least 200,000. per year plus expenses to support him for his life. Don't believe me? Google "the Former Presidents Act", it goes a long way to explain the S...eating look (ala: Alfred e. Neuman) that he exhibits. For me, I'm past my "3 score and 10", so not likely to have to support him too long. For all the rational folks, a question: At what point do misdemeanors add up enough to be "high Crimes"? I think he is well past that point and in all my life I have never seen or considered a man who would put down his country as Obama does, well, maybe Jimmy Carter. But at least Carter served in the military before he became useless.

Angel| 6.14.10 @ 3:38PM

King Barack is infected with the pathology of evil, psychotic narcissism. He is a classic case. That is why he reminds you of Vandersloot. By the way, Purple guy must be purple because that is the color of an SEIU thug. He's very entertaining, however, as comic relief.

Oldefarte| 6.14.10 @ 3:39PM

Your OBSERVATION in the last paragraph just about says it all, except that this country/we are NOT MAKING A LOT OF MONEY. On the contrary, we're losing money by the bucket full in more ways than one!!!!!!!

JJ| 6.14.10 @ 7:32PM

IL DUCE' OBAMA ------ he would be the perfect fascist dictator of a Kingdom!
Actually he was the perfect Senator ------- no command decisions needed: speak, spout, pontificate, attack, correct, demonize, warn -- be the critic, the know-it-all, the master of all topics. Make speeches only.

I can tell he hates the job -- just hates it. Having to act like he cares about the "folks" down there on the Gulf -- "fish-er-men" ...
Remember how uncomfortable he was when the plumber from Ohio asked him a question ... ? (Jeepers, where's Matt Lauer to get me outa this mess ...)
You know he just wants to take his ball and go home. When it's all over he'll write a book about how America's SYSTEMIC issues prevented him from building his utopia (right wing conspiracy).

Just think of what the next Presidential debates are going to sound like. Ughh. Someone is going to eat his lunch and knock that chip off his shoulder.

GavInTucson| 6.14.10 @ 11:29PM

I laughed out loud when I read the paragraph talking about how comments should be inserted into his teleprompter directing, "show passion here" or "be angry now."

I think everyone knows where I'm going with this... this guy's such an empty suit that we would actually read the words out loud. Can you imagine how hilarious one of his speeches would be if this were to actually happen?

Much funnier that hearing the phrase, Navy "corpse-man" over and over.

ground rules| 6.14.10 @ 11:42PM

Someone way back there suggested Purplegay had a crystal ball. I think he has a glass jaw, too.

But, on the subject of body language, has anyone taken note of Obama tripping the light fantastic down the steps of AF One, holding hands limply in front, wrists flopping lazily. What a laugh if Mr. Wonderful some day he misses a step and knocks his front teeth out before landing, face down at the feet of representatives of the Armed Forces who are forced to salute him everywhere he goes. Failing that, how about if someone just forgets to roll out the steps? Geronimo!

ground rules| 6.14.10 @ 11:42PM

Someone way back there suggested Purplegay had a crystal ball. I think he has a glass jaw, too.

But, on the subject of body language, has anyone taken note of Obama tripping the light fantastic down the steps of AF One, holding hands limply in front, wrists flopping lazily. What a laugh if Mr. Wonderful some day he misses a step and knocks his front teeth out before landing, face down at the feet of representatives of the Armed Forces who are forced to salute him everywhere he goes. Failing that, how about if someone just forgets to roll out the steps? Geronimo!

ground rules| 6.15.10 @ 12:09AM

Scrolling back, I see that drudge ette - - has observed the floppy/limp wrist thing. Sammy Davis, Jr. did it, too, but only when he was doing a soft--shoe dance. With Obama, it is "I'm too cool and this is my big plane and I just finished a cold lobster salad and you guys paid for it." - - it's just another way of saying "I m the President of the United States and you're not".

As for impeaching - that went really well with Bill Clinton, didn't it? Did he get re-elected after that? It was all so long ago. I believe Emmett Tyrrell wrote a book by that title. Well, actually Bill was impeached. But in another brave Republican stand, it didn't stick - not even with the blue dress, the semen match and lying under oath. As I recall, at the same time, Henry Hyde's 85-year old indiscretion was revealed, another staunch conservative congressman resigned because Larry Flynt busted him on an illegitimate child charge. Pumpkin-shooting Dan Burton was also found to be misbehaving.Probably Newt was getting it on with Calista about then while Marianne moped at home. Republican wimps are never going to impeach anybody. Every time they get a little bold a Mark Souder or David Vittner, or Mark Foley or the guy in the airport bathroom whose name I don't even remember - - gets knee-capped. How many headlines are just waiting to be run at the golden moment? Ever notice the timing on these exposes? Republicans are taking no chances.

Eric Wright| 6.15.10 @ 5:05AM

...I think it may be more important whether their body & eye contact have the same language as what they are saying at that moment....Being aware that at times people who lie or are stretching what they are saying will usually not speak the same body language...Eye contact is in fact a part of body language and only one of several ways we may come to a quick or slow decision about that person..
http://ezinearticles.com/?Nitr.....id=4432221

Sam H| 6.15.10 @ 11:51PM

Let me get this straight...Alan Brooks likens both Bob Dole and John McCain to dog vomit? Disagree with their politics all you want Mr. Brooks, but how dare you disparage two war veterans and men of heroic action.

What theatre or front did you serve in Mr. Brooks?

Or were you too busy thinking up snide and petulant criticisms which you could post on the AmSpec blog?

We certainly are lucky to count "men" of your caiber amongst our citizenry.

NorthForty| 6.16.10 @ 12:25PM

Obama is "All hat, and no cattle."

Oh, for the days when we didn't know his name.

immigrantwhitey| 6.16.10 @ 1:11PM

establish and require banks to provide home loan products which would enable "disenfranchised" to purchase homes they clearly could not afford. understanding that they, like children left in a candy shop overnight, will over indulge, exploit any equity the earn, and become future victims of the mean and greedy lenders.

Create a financial collapse, which will affect every corner of the planet. Not one citizen of the U.S. will escape the damage caused by this planned collapse.

Enter the "ethnic" presidential candidate, who swoops in to save the day, appealing to all of the victims of those greedy banks. The savior who will punish wall street, and hand out more freebies to the victims. He starts out as a touchable, tangible leader. Months into his presidency, he establishes the Mussoliniesque , Hitleresque stature, looking down his nose on his audience.
Destroy jobs in the private sector, making almost every citizen dependent to some extent, on the government.
Force through a healthcare bill
Hand out TARP money to only those institutions that the government wants to survive. GM and GMAC
Take no action to secure our borders, thus allowing millions of illegal immigrants to enter our country.
Take the time to meet with President Calderon of MESSico, before taking the time to meet with a clearly disgusted and beyond frustrated Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona.
Publicly denounce the efforts of Jan Brewers efforts to secure the borders, despite denying her the resources to protect the citizens of her state.
Grow government jobs, more government jobs, and even more government jobs.
Finally after much public pessure, agrees to meet with Jan Brewer, resulting in literally no intent to sympathize with Arizona's plight. Offers a pathetic option.

Presidential Primaries begin, and happen to coincide with the great BP oil spill. Much of the media attention was focused on those bad people drilling off the waters, and causing immeasurable damage. Many a Dem jump on the anti-offshore drilling bandwagon.
Wait, peopl rioting in the streets over illegal immigrants, many of whom were waiving the Meixcan flag directly above the American flag. Enraged potestors on both sides making demands
but just in the nick of time, the oil tragedy diverts attention away from the illegal immigration issue, and diverting the attention of voters.
meanwhile, over TWO THOUSAND, FIVE HUNDRED illegal immigrants are entering the U.S. every single day of the year.
Bet all of your candy on this one; Obama will grant amnesty to the hundreds of millions of illegal immigrants, thus boosting the democratic agenda, and of course all of the sympathizers of the illegals. he will continue to enable disenfranchised citizens, and we will be moving closer to a socialist government. Even closer to the North American Union.
And you don't think there's a hidden agenda here?

Obama was groomed for a plan that was set in motion decades ago, and it is SOCIALISM.

But y'all just keep eating the candy, holding your hand out.

fdsj| 7.1.10 @ 5:10AM

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