Tag: economy

From Rebels to Tyrants: How Americans Became So Dependent Upon Our Government

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

monopoly2As I  was trying to come up with something to write about on today’s blog, I recalled reading the other day that 76% percent of Americans were living from paycheck to paycheck.

I thought to myself, how can that be possible? We live in the richest country on God’s green Earth. We have been the leader of the free world and the country most admired by the world’s population for quite some time now.

How did all this come about?

I believe it is a mixture of events, both internally and externally, that has caused the economic plight that we now find ourselves in.

Starting all the way back with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and all of the government programs which he began with the express purpose of bringing us out of the Great Depression, Americans have grown more and more dependent on a nanny state government.

This blind trust was cemented by JFK’s hopeful optimism and national push for Americans to commit to serving their country.

By the time President Johnson came into office, after the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the majority of Americans totally believed that our government always had our best interest at heart.

President Johnson came into office and immediately started his push for the Great Society. These programs were designed to make Americans even more dependent on the Federal Government for their very survival.

As the Vietnam War grew more and more and unpopular, Americans’ trust in the government became more and more compromised.  Protests against the Federal Government became more and more common and it became cool to be a rebel or “hippie”.

Time passed, and while rebellious Americans calmed down, Americans’ dependence upon government programs became generational, as multiple family members from one generation to the next, relied on Uncle Sugar for their daily existence.

Meanwhile, the rebels of the 1960’s got older and began to work within the system, taking jobs within the private and public sectors.

Eventually, they moved into positions of power, becoming heads of corporations and local and national politicians.

It is not really necessary to tell you what the political ideology of these rebels was, is it?

As the last century ended and the new one began, these hippies and their offspring, solidly in place in the halls of power, began to pass more more legislation designed to keep generations of Americans enslaved to Uncle Sugar.

Ironic, huh?

And, then it happened.

From the state of Illinois, came the messiah that both the hippies in power and the dependent class they made careers out of enslaving had been waiting for, Barack Hussein Obama.

With both a liberal controlled Congress and a Far Left president, a pathway was cleared for an all-out assault against capitalism.

Immediately upon his ascension to power,  Obama set out, with the help of his minions, to pass an massive Stimulus Bill , which was designed to reward their supporters, while buying and paying for some new ones.

Meanwhile, corporations continued their trend of leaving the country, begun with the rise of the Liberal Congress, due to high taxes and the anti-capitalist policies of the ruling class.

Even after a strong showing by Conservatives in 2010, the ruling class made sure that their new messiah would remain on the throne for a second term, by manipulating the shallow minded Republican Establishment into nominating an ambivalent legacy as their Presidential Candidate.

Preying on the government dependency of 47 percent of Americans, the Liberal Democrats secured a second term For Barack Hussein Obama.

And, that brings us to our current situation.

We are a nation badly in need of another Gipper to help us reach the goal line.

On January 20, 1981, newly-elected President Ronald Wilson Reagan said these words to a weary nation…

These United States are confronted with an economic affliction of great proportions.

We suffer from the longest and one of the worst sustained inflations in our national history. It distorts our economic decisions, penalizes thrift, and crushes the struggling young and the fixed-income elderly alike. It threatens to shatter the lives of millions of our people.

Idle industries have cast workers into unemployment, human misery, and personal indignity. Those who do work are denied a fair return for their labor by a tax system which penalizes successful achievement and keeps us from maintaining full productivity.

But great as our tax burden is, it has not kept pace with public spending. For decades we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children’s future for the temporary convenience of the present. To continue this long trend is to guarantee tremendous social, cultural, political, and economic upheavals.

You and I, as individuals, can, by borrowing, live beyond our means, but for only a limited period of time. Why, then, should we think that collectively, as a nation, we’re not bound by that same limitation? We must act today in order to preserve tomorrow. And let there be no misunderstanding: We are going to begin to act, beginning today.

The economic ills we suffer have come upon us over several decades. They will not go away in days, weeks, or months, but they will go away. They will go away because we as Americans have the capacity now, as we’ve had in the past, to do whatever needs to be done to preserve this last and greatest bastion of freedom.

In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem. From time to time we’ve been tempted to believe that society has become too complex to be managed by self-rule, that government by an elite group is superior to government for, by, and of the people. Well, if no one among us is capable of governing himself, then who among us has the capacity to govern someone else? All of us together, in and out of government, must bear the burden. The solutions we seek must be equitable, with no one group singled out to pay a higher price.

We hear much of special interest groups. Well, our concern must be for a special interest group that has been too long neglected. It knows no sectional boundaries or ethnic and racial divisions, and it crosses political party lines. It is made up of men and women who raise our food, patrol our streets, man our mines and factories, teach our children, keep our homes, and heal us when we’re sick — professionals, industrialists, shopkeepers, clerks, cabbies, and truckdrivers. They are, in short, “We the people,” this breed called Americans.

Well, this administration’s objective will be a healthy, vigorous, growing economy that provides equal opportunities for all Americans with no barriers born of bigotry or discrimination. Putting America back to work means putting all Americans back to work. Ending inflation means freeing all Americans from the terror of runaway living costs. All must share in the productive work of this “new beginning,” and all must share in the bounty of a revived economy. With the idealism and fair play which are the core of our system and our strength, we can have a strong and prosperous America, at peace with itself and the world.

So, as we begin, let us take inventory. We are a nation that has a government — not the other way around. And this makes us special among the nations of the Earth. Our government has no power except that granted it by the people. It is time to check and reverse the growth of government, which shows signs of having grown beyond the consent of the governed.

It is my intention to curb the size and influence of the Federal establishment and to demand recognition of the distinction between the powers granted to the Federal Government and those reserved to the States or to the people. All of us need to be reminded that the Federal Government did not create the States; the States created the Federal Government.

Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it’s not my intention to do away with government. It is rather to make it work — work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it.

President Reagan understood that

Entrepreneurs and their small enterprises are responsible for almost all the economic growth in the United States.

And, for Americans to prosper, capitalism must not be stifled by over-taxation and an unfriendly Federal Government.

When the private section prospers, the power of the Government to control our daily lives diminishes.

So…why are 76 percent of American living paycheck to paycheck?

Because our national politicians have to protect their phony-boloney jobs…and, it is easier to control us this way.

Until He Comes,

KJ

The Cost of Idolatry

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics3 Comments

American ChristianityLast night, as I was getting ready for bed, I started thinking about the heroes I had while growing up. Besides the Triune God and my Daddy, my heroes were the Lone Ranger and Tonto, Superman (George Reeves), Batman (Adam West), Roy Rogers, James West and Artemus Gordon (The Wild, Wild West), The Cartwright Family (Bonanza), Daniel Boone, and Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, and Mike Shannon of the St. Louis Cardinals.

I’ve always rooted for the Good Guy. Because I was raised in a Christian Home, by a Christian Father, I’ve also always had a deep sense of right and wrong, followed by a predilection to moral outrage, when I see a Bad Guy getting away with something.

I can remember, as a Tenerfoot Boy Scout, being out at the Fair with my Troop. A buddy of mine and I were walking through one of the pavilions, when a bunch of older thugs tried to bum some money off my friend. Now, I was in the seventh Grade, and stood about 4-foot-nuthin’, but I stood straight up and, in a loud voice, filled with moral outrage, exclaimed,

Hey, man! The kid said that he didn’t have any money!

Needless to say, I stunned the thugs, and got the attention of all the adults in the vicinity. The thugs retreated, as quickly as they could.

That being said, I was wondering…what sort of role models do the “young folks” have now?

Take the case of Miley Cyrus, the former Hannah Montana. A few short years ago, she was all the rage…a perky, young princess with the voice of an angel, appearing in her own sit-com on the Disney Channel. God had blessed her with the voice of an angel, a winning personality, and a talented Dad, Bill Ray Cyrus, who wrote all her songs for her. She quickly rose to stardom, becoming the idol of pre-teen girls from coast to coast.

As she got older, she decided to put away her clean and wholesome image, for a sexier, wilder “grown-up” image., kicked off by doing a pole dance, while performing a song at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards in 2009.

Needless to say, that went over with the nation’s parents about as well as Obama speaking at the NRA.

Now, in 2013, she sports multiple tattoos, has a new fiancee every few months, and came out this last week supporting the legalization of pot.

Annette Funicello, she ain’t.

However, it is not just entertainers that are worshiped. Politicians are worshiped, also. However, none have seeming been the object of such over-the-top, slovenly boot-kissing, (I cleaned that up) hissy-fit-having worship as one Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm).

In 2007, On his way to his nomination as the Democratic Presidential Candidate, Obama was lauded as being downright mythical by his future Vice-President Joe Biden,

I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.

Once he became president, songs were written in his honor and taught to America schoolchildren, who were forced to sing them at school events.

Barack Hussein Obama

He said that all must lend a hand

To make this country strong again

Mmm, mmm, mm!

Barack Hussein Obama

He said we must be fair today

Equal work means equal pay

Mmm, mmm, mm!

Barack Hussein Obama

He said that we must take a stand

To make sure everyone gets a chance

Mmm, mmm, mm!

Barack Hussein Obama

He said red, yellow, black or white

All are equal in his sight

Mmm, mmm, mm!

Barack Hussein Obama

Yes!

Mmm, mmm, mm

Barack Hussein Obama

A Presidential Hymn?

This cult of Obama Worship has remained strong for over 5 years, providing the Kenyan Kaiser a Pharoah’s Army, if you will. In fact, they’ve even made up their own Golden Rule:

Any criticism of President Barack Hussein Obama is RAAACIIIST!

Additionally, like the Pharaohs of old, there are several American Schools named after this sitting president in states such as Pennsylvania and Maryland. In fact, this past week, we’ve learned that some fools out in the San Fernando Valley, in California, are going to name an elementary school, after First Lady Michelle Obama.

Highly unusual, to say the least.

There are those who are reading today’s post, who may think that I have “lost it” or I am “over-reacting”. They are wrong.

God’s word tells us to “flee from idolatry”.

Do you remember, either from reading in Exodus, or from the movie “The Ten Commandments”, how the people of Israel used the Gold, which they had taken with them from Egypt, to fashion a Golden Calf, which they began to worship, while Moses was up on the mountain with God?

Remember what happened?

God punished them for it. Big time.

It appears to me that, in today’s fast-moving, flighty society,  Americans tend to focus on who or what is popular, and before their eyes at that moment, telling them what they want to hear. We, just as our ancestors in the time of Christ, enjoy “having our ears tickled”, whether it be the latest fashion, the latest car, the latest celebrity, or a prevaricating politician, like Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm), promising us “Hope and Change” .

God, in his word, continuously warns us about the dangers of putting our faith in “false messiahs” and also warns us that “the things of this world are fleeting”.

However, as I look at the state of our nation and its so-called “Leadership”, it appears to me that, just as all of those “stiff-necked people” in the Good Book, we still have to discover God’s Truth for ourselves…the hard way.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Obamacare Gets Personal

On By kingsjesterIn Politics3 Comments

obamadoctorI hope that all of you had a blessed Easter Sunday with your family. I know that I did. My step-son, daughter-in-law, and 5 year old grandson, came over for honey-baked ham and scalloped potatoes.

I was glad to see them and to get to spend time with them and to get a chance to talk to my steep-son. He was let go, last Thursday, from the trucking company he worked for. He had consistently been one of their top drivers for over a year. However, that wasn’t enough. You see, his company, which is run out of the great White North, is slowing eliminating all of their company drivers, in favor of owner-operators.

The reason? The coming of Obamacare.

The 2012 National Survey of Employer-Sponsored Health Plans, predicts that the average per-employee cost of health coverage will rise about 6.5 percent in 2013 and that 58 percent of employers surveyed have already made plans to shift costs to their employees to reduce the hit that they will take.

Even though the study found that while very few employers anticipate canceling their health benefit plans after reform is fully implemented, smaller employers are nearly three times as likely to say they will. When asked whether they plan to end their employee health coverage in five years, after Obamacare is fully implemented, 16 percent of smaller employers (between 10 and 499 employees) said they probably would end their employee health plans. Only 6 percent of bigger companies claimed that they would cancel coverage once insurance exchanges go online and individual mandates and employer penalties become effective. (The penalties won’t apply to companies with fewer than 50 employees.)

Although Obamacare is not supposed to go into full effect until 2014, several aspects of it are due to swing into effect in 2013:

Exchange enrollment. Open enrollment for individual and small business health insurance exchanges begins Oct. 1, 2013. “Exchanges are probably the most important provision of health-care reform for small businesses because they will help lower costs and improve choice of plans,” says Erin Musgrave, communications director at Small Business Majority, an advocacy group that has pushed for health-care reform.

States have until the middle of November 2012 to declare whether they will operate their own exchanges or default to exchanges operated by the federal government. There is some question about how many states will have their exchanges ready for business by the Jan. 1, 2014, target date. The exchanges will allow individuals and small businesses with up to 100 employees to shop for qualified health insurance coverage online, using a one-stop option.

Tax implications. As in recent years, dating to tax year 2010, eligible employers that provide health coverage will again get a tax credit for up to 35 percent of their contribution toward employee insurance. The credit is calculated based on average wages and number of employees; it goes up to 50 percent for tax year 2014.

High-income individuals. For singles with modified adjusted gross income over $200,000 and married taxpayers with $250,000 MAGI, a 3.8 percent Medicare contribution tax will apply for tax year 2013 to investment income, including interest, dividends, annuities, royalties and rents.

W-2 reporting. Tax form W-2s issued in January 2013 for wages paid in 2012 must for the first time include a line showing the benefit employees receive from their employer-sponsored health care. The provision is an attempt to make health-care benefits and spending more transparent. Small companies may face an increase in their W-2 preparation costs to cover gathering that information and reporting it, Starkman says.

After this report was issed, the Obama Administration gave the states until December 14th of last year to declare for the Healthcare Exchanges. When the dust settled 26 states told the Administration to get lost, refusing to install Obmamcare in their states. That forces the Administration to scramble to run those exchanges, themselves.

That brings another problem.

If the White House can’t get their act together, and build these exchanges, it could mean that some of the states which opted out will not have an exchange in place by Oct. 1, 2013, the deadline for all exchanges to be operational.

The folks who wrote Obamacare did not foresee the states standing up to them, as demonstrated by the fact that there is no language in the law to address the possibility.

While Uncle Sugar has enough of our money to build these exchanges, they will have a rough time working with the different health insurance rules and regulations in each state, which have been set in place by the individual health insurance commissioners over several decades.

Another problem is one of the Obama Administration’s own device.

The law was written specifically to provide that a health-insurance exchange run by a state is eligible to receive subsidies from the federal government, but it does not state that an exchange run by the Department of Health and Human Services is eligible to receive the same money.

For now, the IRS is ignoring this fact, but someone eventually may mount a legal challenge over the issue, leaving the matter up to the courts to decide.

Meanwhile, businesses, such as the Trucking Company who just let my step-son go, will continue to lay off workers as they coping with this horrible economy and the upcoming mandates that will be forced upon them by Obamacare.

What a fiasco.

Until He Comes,

KJ

Rep. Lt. Col. Allen West: Shooting from the Hip

On By kingsjesterIn Politics4 Comments

Rep. Allen West (R-FL) spoke Sunday at a campaign event in his district, where he said the following about President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmm):

He does not want you to have the self-esteem of getting up and earning, and having that title of American. He’d rather you be his slave.

Lt. Col. West tells it like it is. Check out his Facebook Post from yesterday:

U.S. Manufacturing Shrinks for First Time in 2 Years: U.S. manufacturing shrank in June for the first time in nearly two years, another troubling sign for the economy, which is still faltering under the failed policies of President Obama. The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, reported that its index of manufacturing activity fell to 49.7. That’s down from 53.5 in May and the lowest reading since July 2009. While the President often touts the recent growth of manufacturing jobs, the economy has actually shed 599,000 manufacturing jobs since the month President Obama took office and this news shows the sector could be in more trouble.

Federal Deficit Totals $844.5 Billion Through 8 Months of FY 2012: According to the Department of Treasury, the U.S. has racked up $844.5 billion in deficits through the first eight months (October 2011 – May 2012) of fiscal year 2012, keeping the nation well on track to hit a $1 trillion deficit for the fourth consecutive year. Prior to President Obama taking office, the highest U.S. deficit ever was $458 billion.

President’s Healthcare Law = Reduced Access for Medicare Beneficiaries, Higher Costs for Everyone Else: A May 2012 memo from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Service (CMS) Office of the Actuary discussed the projected payment rates for physician services, currently scheduled to be reduced by 31 percent in 2013 under President Obama’s federal takeover of healthcare law. Updating their original projections from 2010, the memo stated that the fiscal effects of the law would result in negative margins (i.e. unprofitability, or losing money) for a significant percentage of hospitals, skilled nursing facilities, and home health agencies. In other words, providers will stop serving Medicare patients, or increase costs for everyone else.

Who is this straight shooter? Wellll, in case you didn’t know:

Congressman Allen West (FL-22) proudly and humbly serves the constituents of Florida’s 22nd district, encompassing parts of beautiful Broward and Palm Beach Counties along South Florida’s coastline. Patriotism is in Congressman West’s blood. Born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, in the same neighborhood where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr once preached, West is the third of four generations of military servicemen in his family. Before retiring as a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Army, West served as a Field Artillery Officer in several combat zones: in Operation Desert Storm, in Operation Iraqi Freedom, where he was battalion commander for the Army’s 4th Infantry Division, and in Afghanistan, where he trained Afghan officers to take on the responsibility of securing their own country.

In 2004, when it was time to retire from service, West brought his wife and two young daughters to South Florida, where he taught high school for one year. He then returned to Afghanistan as an advisor to the Afghan army.

In November of 2010, Congressman West was honored to be able to continue his oath of service to his country when he was elected to be a Representative in the United States Congress.

“I have traded in my camouflage uniform for a suit,” West said. “But the commitment to protect the people of the United States is still my mission.”

Congressman West received his Bachelors degree from University of Tennessee and Masters degree from Kansas State University, both in political science. He also holds a Master of Military Arts and Sciences from the US Army Command and General Staff Officer College in political theory and military operations.

In his Army career, Col. West has been honored many times, including a Bronze Star, three Meritorious Service Medals, three Army Commendation Medals (one with Valor), and a Valorous Unit Award. He received his valor award as a Captain in Desert Shield/Storm, was the US Army ROTC Instructor of the Year in 1993, and was a Distinguished Honor Graduate III Corps Assault School. He proudly wears the Army Master parachutist badge, Air Assault badge, Navy/Marine Corps parachutist insignia, Italian parachutist wings, and German proficiency badge (Bronze award).

Congressman West is an avid distance runner, a certified SCUBA diver, motorcyclist, and attends Community Christian Church in Tamarac Florida.

What this biography, written by the GOP, doesn’t tell you, is the stuff legends are made of, and one of the reasons this man is admired by patriotic Americans and a Tea Party Favorite:

He was the officer in charge on Aug. 20 of that year [2003] when soldiers under his command in Taji, Iraq, beat an Iraqi policeman they believed was hiding information about imminent attacks. Not getting the information he wanted, West took over the interrogation and, according to court reports, discharged his 9 mm pistol just above the policeman’s head. According to West, the Iraqi then spilled the beans about a planned ambush.

The policeman, Yehiya Kadoori Hamoodi, told The New York Times almost a year later that he had blurted out meaningless information to West out of fear and pain. But West has said that after the confession, no further attacks were made against his battalion until the time he was relieved of duty two months later.

[The LA Times wrote this from their decidedly Liberal point-of-view.  Lt. Col. West saved his men. Period.]

West was charged with assault and violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The military decided not to court-martial him, which would have meant years in prison and a dishonorable discharge if convicted. Instead, he was given an administrative Article 32 hearing and fined $5,000 for misconduct and assault.

An outpouring of support — the conservative blogosphere characterized West as a victim of a flawed system — and a letter signed by 95 members of Congress to the secretary of the Army may have helped West avoid more serious punishment.

A man like this…do you think he’s worried about how Obama and his sycophants are going to react to what he said Sunday?

Nope. Not a bit.

Obama: Style Over Substance

On By kingsjesterIn Politics5 Comments

Yesterday, a desperate-looking 44th President of the United States, one Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm), delivered a speech that was supposed to turn around his rapidly-tanking presidency.

To say that he failed is an understatement.  Even the Liberals were disappointed in their messiah.

Politicker.com reports that

Despite the hype, the speech was mainly a rehash of themes and ideas from the president’s recent stump speeches and his remarks were widely panned as overly long by the political press corps.

In the speech, President Obama outlined his view that this election is a choice between “two fundamentally different views of which direction America should take.” He characterized Mitt Romney’s vision as being the same as the “policies of the last decade,” specifically deregulation and tax cuts for the wealthy while he described his own “vision for America” as boiling down to five things: “Education. Energy. Innovation. Infrastructure. And a tax code focused on American job creation and balanced deficit reduction.” President Obama also stressed that the economic crisis began during the Bush administration and that is “started growing again” after he took office and has since “continued to grow.”

All of these points have already been featured in the president’s other recent speeches. Between the pre-speech hype from the campaign, the lack of new material and the overall length of the speech reporters were clearly dissatisfied with end result. Read on for a sampling of Tweets from the political press slamming the president’s speech.

Before the speech was over, Politico’s Mike O’Brien begged the president to stop.

Evidently, ol’ Scooter is now an embarrassment to the Liberals.

But, hey, Libs…there’s good news!  What Obama lacks in substance, he makes up for in style. Yeah, right…

Anna Wintour is becoming quite the fashionable fixture on President Obama’s campaign team this election season.

The Vogue editrix hit Chicago on Tuesday – flanked by supermodels Iman and Chanel Iman, designer Rachel Roy and Obama campaign manager Jim Messina – for an evening of haute fund-raising at Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Studios.

Wintour was on hand to preside over the Windy City debut of the “Runway to Win” collection, a line of Obama-themed clothes and accessories by designers like Prabal Gurung, Jason Wu, Marc Jacobs, Beyoncé & Tina Knowles, Tory Burch, Tracy Reese and Narcisco Rodriguez – several of whom are favorites of First Lady Michelle Obama.

Tickets ran from $150 for a guest pass to sip cocktails and shop the collection to $1,000 for a VIP package, including a photo reception with Wintour and Iman (aka Mrs. David Bowie) and a limited edition bag, to $2,500 for access to the show, the reception and an exclusive dinner party at Oprah’s Harpo headquarters. Donations benefited the Obama Victory Fund, according to a dedicated page on Obama’s website.

The “Runway to Win” line is also being promoted on the site, with most tops, bags and accessories going for under $100 – a much lower price point than those designers’ creations typically command.

Wintour has been ramping up her involvement, and her visibility, in the president’s reelection effort of late. Proving she’s good for far more than dispensing fashion tips to FLOTUS, Vogue’s longtime editor-in-chief has emerged as one of President Obama’s top boldfaced bundlers, raising over $500,000 for his second run on the White House.

The British-born Wintour’s rising profile in the American political arena has stirred up rumors that the 62-year-old fashion doyenne could be in the running to become America’s next ambassador to the United Kingdom, replacing the outgoing Louis Susman. However, an individual with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap that Wintour is happy at her current job.

Tuesday’s summit for Chicago-area fashionistas was a repeat of a “Runway to Win” campaign event co-hosted by Wintour and Scarlett Johansson in New York on February 7. On Thursday, Wintour will return to Manhattan for yet another fund-raiser, this time with the high-end asking price of $40,000 per guest to join Barack and Michelle Obama and Sarah Jessica Parker at the “Sex and the City” star’s home.

Okaaaay…let me try to get a handle on this:  Obama gives an speech on the economy , sporting all the gravitas of Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits singing “I’m Henry VIII I Am”.

Second verse, same as the first…

Meanwhile, Mr. Class Warfare himself is hanging out and begging money from the nation’s Liberal Elite…the 1%, if you will, while Moochelle is picking out her Fall Wardrobe while clutching the White House Credit Card in her hot little hands.

Remember back in October of 2008, Presidential Candidate Obama urged Joe the Plumber to “spread the wealth around”?

Well, hypocrite thy name is Soetoro…errr…Obama.

UPI.com reported on 5/16/11 that

President Barack Obama’s wealth reaches upward of $3.8 million and possibly much higher, financial disclosure reports issued by the White House Monday show.

The forms, which only provide wide ranges for each category, show most of his assets are tied up in treasury notes and bills — $1 million to $5 million each, with another $1 million to $5 million in book royalties. Obama and his wife, Michelle, also have at least hundreds of thousands of dollars more tucked away in retirement funds and education funds for their two daughters.

At the lower level, Obama probably is worth $3.8 million and at the upper end would have as much as $16.8 million, the reports indicate.

Huh.  I wonder why OWS didn’t Occupy the White House Lawn?

Oh, yeah.  The Proletariat never picketed the Politboro, either.

Overcoming Obama’s Economy

On By kingsjesterIn Christianity, Politics15 Comments

Have you ever said something really ig’nant and had to back off from it?

President Barack Hussein Obama (mm mmm mmmm) had to deal with that embarrassing situation yesterday.

He did some moondancing that the late Michael Jackson would be envious of:

President Obama on Friday afternoon backed away from his earlier comments that the “private sector is doing fine,” telling reporters that he does not believe the economy is doing fine.

“That’s precisely why I asked Congress to start taking some steps that can make a difference,” Mr. Obama said in brief remarks to reporters during a meeting with the visiting Philippines president.

Republicans had seized on comments Mr. Obama made during an earlier news conference, in which he repeatedly made the point that hiring at private businesses is doing well, while hiring by state and local government is not.

“The private sector is doing fine,” Mr. Obama said at the news conference.

But by later in the day, Mr. Obama had decided to emphasize that he does not believe that the overall economy is doing fine, as Republicans were trying to suggest.

“Listen, it is absolutely clear the economy is not doing fine,” he said. He suggested that Republicans had misstated his words from earlier in the day.

“I think if you look at what I said this morning, what I’ve been saying consistently over the last year, we’ve actually seen some good momentum in the private sector,” he said. “There’s been 4.3 million jobs created, 800,000 this year alone, record corporate profits.”

He added: “And so that has not been the biggest drag on the economy.”

Mr. Obama said the economy “needs to be strengthened,” adding that “I believe that there are a lot of Americans who are hurting right now, which is what I’ve been saying for the last year, two years, three years, what I’ve been saying since I came into office.”

Obama’s feckless Economic Plan has done about as much good for our country as a screen door on a submarine.

I know.  I was one of those affected by it.

Beginning in January of 2009, I attempted to sell Health Insurance, first with AFLAC, then as an agent with an Independent Broker.

I gave it my best shot, battling against Obama’s war on the American Healthcare System.  However, as I soon found out, creditors don’t take promises as collateral.

Desperate to try to bring some money into the household, a good friend of mine told me about an opportunity for a technology internship, working with a quasi-governmental non-profit agency that came in from Canada to work with the schools after Hurricane Katrina.

At the age of 52, I became the world’s oldest intern.

I began with them in January of 2011, working at a local school for 30 hours a week and the local branch of the state Employment Office for the remaining 10 hours each week.

It was a good experience.  The Lord taught me humility, while allowing me to catch up with technology, such as Skype and interactive whiteboards.  I also had the opportunity to work with some great professionals, and some great young interns.

While at the Employment Office, I was able to observe folks down on their luck, struggling to find work and survive in this economy.

I also saw American families whose existance living on the Government Dole, had become generational.

It is these people whom Obama and the Democrats have hypnotized into believing that Uncle Sugar loves them, and is their only solution to surviving a stifling existence.

They are so, so wrong.

The strength and vitality of America does not come from the benevolence of a Nanny-state Federal Government.

As the greatest American President of our lifetime, Ronald Reagan said:

The nine words you never want to hear are:  I’m from the Government and I’m here to help.

Being enslaved to the Government Dole steals one’s ambition.  It takes away any impetus or desire to create a better life for yourself and your family, to challenge yourself to pick yourself up by your bootstraps and pursue the American Dream.  It makes you reliant on a politically-motivated spider’s web full of government bureaucrats who view you and your family as job security.

I watched American citizens trapped in this web of government bureaucracy,  so numbed of any initiative that they once had, that they seemed offended that they actually had to prove that they inquired about three jobs that week in order to keep their “benefits”.  Others seemed puzzled that they had to search through the state data base and pick out a job that they wanted to talk to an interviewer about receiving a referral to, and weren’t just simply handed a job when they walked through the door.

My last day as an intern was yesterday.  This Monday, I begin an new adventure.  Thanks to another very good friend, I was given the opportunity to interview for a position at a 100 person, 5-company corporation.

Last Saturday, my friend called me with the good news:  I got the job!

The title:  Vice-President of Marketing.

I’ll be doing some Internet Marketing, including Blogging and Tweeting, writing press releases and newsletters, attending Chamber of Commerce Meetings, and, of course, other duties as assigned.

It wasn’t Uncle Sugar/the Obama Administration that gave me this job.  

It was a God thing and I hope you understand.

May his days be few; may another take his office!

Psalm 109:8 – English Standard Version (©2001)

It’s Still the Economy, Stupid.

On By kingsjesterIn Politics6 Comments

Barack Obama said the following about the “Recession” we’ve experienced for the last three and a half years, at a campaign rally in Seattle, Washington, yesterday:

It was a house of cards and it collapsed in the most destructive, worst crisis that we’ve seen since the Great Depression. And sometimes people forget the magnitude of it. You know, you saw some of that in the video that was shown. Sometimes I forget.

Mitt Romney’s press secretary, Andrea Saul, responds: “It’s not surprising that a president who forgot to create jobs, forgot to cut the debt, and forgot to change Washington has now admitted that he’s forgotten about the recession. In fact, it seems that the President has forgotten that he’s been in office for the last three-and-a-half years. In November, the American people won’t forget.”

Per Gallup,

64% of Americans are employed full-time, 18.2% are underemployed, and 8.3% are unemployed.

Also, per Gallup:

Registered voters are more likely to say Mitt Romney, if elected president, would do a very good or good job of handling the economy than they are to say President Obama would, if re-elected — 61% vs. 52%. While the two men earn about equal “very good” ratings, 22% of voters think Obama would do a “very poor” job, more than twice as many as say the same about Romney (10%).

Voters were asked to rate Obama and Romney separately on the economy in the May 1-2 USA Today/Gallup poll. However, when forced to choose between the two in a follow-up question, voters were split about evenly, with 47% saying Romney and 45% Obama.

Voters’ greater likelihood to say Obama would do a “very poor” job with the economy comes partly from the large percentage of Republicans who say this — 46%. This compares with a much smaller 20% of Democrats who say the same about Romney. This could partly reflect the fact that Obama has been in office for more than three years in troubled economic times, while Romney has no track record on the economy at the national level. In total, 81% of Republicans say Obama would do a very poor or poor job of handling the economy, while 58% of Democrats give Romney the same ratings.

Independents also give Romney much better ratings than Obama on handling the economy. Twenty-one percent of independents believe Obama would do a very poor job with the economy over the next four years, while 7% say the same about Romney. They are more likely to say Romney than Obama would do a very good or good job — 64% vs. 52%.

Independents’ views on the forced-choice question are similar, with 50% saying Romney would do a better job and 40% saying Obama would. Democrats and Republicans overwhelmingly choose their respective party’s candidate as better able to manage the economy — at almost identically high levels.

And, while the American Economy continues to sink deeper into a socialist swamp, what is the 44th President of the United States doing about it?

Per  Sen. Marco Rubio, in an interview on Laura Ingraham’s Radio Show on Thursday, not a whole heck of a lot.  In fact, he’s trying his darnedest to cover it up:

According to Florida’s Republican junior U.S. senator, the economy should be the focus, but there seems to be a different issue every week brought to the forefront by the president and his party.

“Every single week, whether it’s the student loan issue this week, or this gay marriage issue — next week it’ll be something else; every single week they will trot out another issue to avoid having to talk about the economy because this election is about the economy, which is what it should be about. He can’t win and they know that. They’re smart enough to know that.”

As for the issue itself, Rubio said it was an important one, but one that was preferably done at the state level.

“I’m not saying this isn’t an issue we shouldn’t have an opinion on,” Rubio said. “I’m not saying it isn’t an important issue. But obviously you’re seeing this issue being litigated and voted on across the country at the state level. We did so in Florida. You saw so in North Carolina. But in terms of our president, what we really want to focus on is getting jobs and the economy growing again and keeping America safe. He doesn’t want to talk about the issue — especially the economy.”

But Rubio said whether it be the student loan issue, the contraception mandate or the same-sex marriage issue, Obama has managed to use these issues to divide people for political purposes.

“Every week, it is an effort by this president to divide one group of Americans against another group of Americans for the purposes of getting him reelected,” Rubio said. “It’s very, very sad.”

Obama is simply following Rule #8 of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, which states:

“Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new. (Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, regroup, recover and re-strategize.)

While Obama’s Far Left Base is jumping for joy, the overwhelming majority of average Americans out here in the Heartland are not amused.