An Administration of Firsts

Not only is Barack Obama the first African-American president, his administration has an impressive record of many firsts. Blogger Doug Ross lists many of them:

President Barack Obama's Complete List of Historic Firsts

Bad Luck

President Obama is on a bus tour of America's heartland, explaining how his economic policies really are working, despite persistently high unemployment, a skyrocketing deficit and downgrade of the country's credit rating.

He told a crowd in Decorah, Iowa,

We had reversed the recession, avoided a depression, gotten the economy moving again. But over the last six months we’ve had a run of bad luck.

Bad luck. Hmmm. The late author Robert Heinlein had some thoughts on "bad luck."

Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded — here and there, now and then — are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right-thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating, or (as sometimes happens) is driven out of a society, the people then slip back into abject poverty.

This is known as “bad luck.”

Democratic Hypocrisy and the Debt Limit

I just love how Democrats and their progressive fellow travelers accuse Republicans of rank partisanship it the debt crisis. You see, Democrats have never shied away from playing politics with the debt limit.

Between 2000 and 2010, the Senate passed 10 increases to the debt limit. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada) opposed raising the limit whenever Republicans controlled the Senate, but supported it whenever Democrats were in the majority.

Guess what other Democratic pol also played partisan games with the debt limit. How about Sen. Barack Obama (D-Illinois)? There were four votes raising the debt limit during his brief tenure in the Senate. He missed two of the votes, supported it when Democrats were in the majority and opposed it when Republicans ruled, stating that it was a "failure of leadership.

Byron York has more on the Democrats hypocritical record of putting partisan politics before country.

The ‘What A Maroon’ Award

And now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you’ve all been waiting for ... This week’s “What A Maroon” award goes to...

VALERIE JARRETT

Valerie Jarrett, a Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement (whatever the heck that is), continues the Administration's tradition of embarrassing gaffes.

Jarrett was at the annual black-tie Alfalfa Club dinner when she mistook Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Chiarelli for a waiter. Somehow missing his four stars and chestful of medals, she asked the general to get her some wine. Chiarelli, a gentleman, complied.

What does it say when a high-ranking member of the Administration doesn’t recognize her own country’s uniform? What is the message this conveys to the men and women wearing that uniform? What would these brave men and women like to tell the Administration?

Cartoonist Chris Muir address that question in his “Day By Day” comic strip.

Whether it’s Barack Obama announcing that he campaigned in 57 states, Vice President Joe Biden telling a paraplegic to stand up and take a bow or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton giving a cheesy Staples Easy Button to the Russian Foreign Minster that Clinton claimed had “reset” written in Russian on it when it actually spelled “overcharge,” the current Administration never ceases to bring embarrassment and humiliation on itself. Jarrett has proven herself a true servant of this inept regime.

WHAT A MAROON!

In honor of the great American philosopher Bugs Bunny who first coined the phrase, I’ve decided to present the “What A Maroon” award each week to the politician, organization or celebrity who makes the most sand-poundingly stupid statement of recent days.

The War and the Deficit

One of the favorite claims of progressives is that the war is responsible for the burgeoning deficit.

However, the facts simply don't support that claim, as is illustrated by this chart from CBO data showing the deficit with and without the war expenditure from 2003 to the present.





Note that the deficit continued to decline until the Democrats took over Congress in 2008 and the skyrocketed when Obama assumed the presidency.

For more information, read this article from the American Thinker.

Best and Brightest 2.0

Those of us old enough to remember the original quagmire, Vietnam, know the phrase, "Best and Brightest." It was the title of book by David Halberstam. It referred to the the "brain trust" President Kennedy collected as his advisers.

Kennedy mined the best brains of the Ivy League and industry. They knew they were the best and brightest in the country. Because they were the best and brightest, they were infallible.

That was the problem. They simply couldn't believe they could make a mistake.

The result was the tragedy of Vietnam.

Neal Gabler of the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington writes that he sees disturbing similarities between the Kennedy and Obama administration advisers.

Gabler's article is a bit long, but it's worth the read.

Opposition to President Obama is Racist

The conventional wisdom of the left is that the real reason conservatives in general and tea partiers in particular oppose President Obama isn’t because of his policies, it’s because of his race. They just don’t like an African-American in the White House and those who criticize him are racist.

Here are some examples of that race hatred of the president:

The ‘What a Maroon’ Award

And now, ladies and gentlemen, the moment you've all been waiting for ... This week's "What A Maroon" award goes to...

NASA ADMINISTRATOR CHARLES BOLDEN

I remember as a child the stunned reaction of adults as the Soviets put Sputnik into orbit and the humiliation of the failure of the United States to match the feat as the Vanguard satellite rocket kept exploding on the launch pad.

I also remember President Kennedy promising a joint session of Congress in May 25, 1961, that America would put a man on the moon by the end of the decade. That promise was kept July 20, 1969, by Neil Armstrong’s “One Small Step.”

Space was ours to explore. What was next, I wondered. A moon colony? Orbiting cities? Expeditions to Mars?

All of these were possible, as that was NASA’s mandate.

Fast forward to the present.

In keeping with the Obama Administration’s tradition of breaking news of importance to the American public overseas first, as when Secretary of State Clinton announced on Ecuadorian television that the federal government would sue the state of Arizona, Administrator Bolden, while in the Arab nation of Qatar, told Al Jazeera that his foremost mission was "to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math and engineering."

It seems that Administrator Bolden forgot that the space agency’s foremost mission is space.

What a Maroon!

In honor of the great American philosopher Bugs Bunny, who first coined the phrase, I've decided to present the "What a Maroon" award each week to the politician or celebrity who makes the most sand-poundingly stupid statement of recent days.

Racial Politics

The Obama Administration, at least its Justice Department, no longer even pretends to be race neutral; it's too useful a tool.

Eric Holder's suit against the state of Arizona is an interesting take. Holder denounce the law, without even reading it, as tinged with the stink of racial profiling. Yet his suit fails to mention that despite his public proclamation. This is probably because he knows the law specifically forbids racial profiling and to bring it up in court would be a good way to lose his case.

And then there is the curious case of the New Black Panther Party. Two truncheon-wielding, uniformed member of the NBPP confronted white voters at a Philadelphia polling place Election Day 2008 shouting racial epithets and making threats. The (then Bush) Justice Department went after them for voter intimidation. The case was won by default judgement because the NBPP didn't even bother to defend its actions in court.

Enter the Obama Administration and Attorney General Eric Holder. Although the case was already won, the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division drops the charges.

Justice Department attorney Christian Adams resigned in protest, stating he was told never to bring a voter intimidation case when the victims were white. He testified to this before the U.S. Civil Rights Commission and has been publicly supported by two former member of the Civil Rights Division, Asheesh Agarwal and Mark Corallo.

One of the NBPP members in question, King Samir Zulu Shabazz, was later shown on video calling for genocide, including the murder of infants. Even the loathsome Fred Phelps doesn't go that far.

As with so much else, the Obama Administration's claim to be post racial is exposed as a lie.

Mr. President, Do Your Job!

President Obama met with Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer and promised help in securing the border. The governor shows what the president meant.

Riot Police Called Against Tea Party

Police in full riot gear were called out in Quincy, Illinois, because of the threat of violence at a Tea Party rally near where President Obama was speaking. Here's a video of the horrible encounter.

Did you hear the screams, the shouted obscenities, the racial epithets, the spitting, the thrown water bottles? Neither did I.

Here's some pictures of the threatening crowd. You know how mean those older white women are!

Progressives everywhere can sleep easier tonight!

In 2010

Next year is an election year for the entire House and one-third of the Senate (including Barbara Boxer). Conservatives are mobilizing and we vote.

Jogging Robert Gibb's Memory

Friday, Nov. 6, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, speaking about offensive signs carried by some anti-Obamacare protestors, said, "People -- imagine five years ago somebody comparing health care reform to 9/11. Imagine just a few years ago had somebody walked around with images of Hitler."

Well, actually, yeah, I can imagine it. Here's why:

Fashion Statement

Guerilla Street Art

First, it was Obama the Joker; now, it's this!

Obamacare: The Musical!

Coming soon to a theater near you!

Hitler on Obama

If Hitler had known Obama...

Obama’s Beer Summit

Well, I have to hand it to President Obama, getting two such diverse men as Professor Henry Gates and police Sgt. James Crowley to sit down over a beer and discuss ways of resolving their differences (even if Joe Biden did crash the party).

This leads me to think that perhaps the leader of the Free World just may be on to something. Just imagine...

Administration Believes Texas is a Foreign Country

It seems that our State Department, under the brilliant, dynamic leadership of President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton, doesn’t realize that Texas is part of the United States. It lists as part of the administration’s accomplishments Clinton's travels to Texas.

It make a certain amount of sense. Since candidate Obama claimed there were 57 states, there’s no reason to expect his Secretary of State to know what states are actually part of the Union.

This is from the State Department’s official news release about its first 100 days.

OVERALL DEPARTMENT POLICY ACCOMPLISHMENTS, REGULATORY INITIATIVES, AND INTERAGENCY EFFORTS

In the first 100 Days of the Obama Administration, Secretary Clinton and the State Department have made significant progress in advancing America’s national security goals and promoting America’s values around the world.

Secretary Clinton is already the most traveled Secretary of State in a new Administration. The Secretary’s trips have included her inaugural trip to Asia, the Middle East and Europe, Mexico and across the border to Texas, the Hague in the Netherlands, Europe with President Obama, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, the Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago with President Obama, and to Iraq and Kuwait.

THE OBAMA-DASCHLE HEALTH PLAN

The Democrats succeeded in passing their “Stimulus Bill.” Part of this package included a section pattered after disgraced tax cheat Tom Daschle’s book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health Care Crisis,” which creates a a new federal agency — The Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, funded to the tune of $700 million.

Putting aside the question of how this fits into a bill the Democrat Party and Obama apologists claimed was for job creation, it does do some frightening things.

Attorney and author Cameron Reddy explains in this important article.