Barack's Excellent Cairo Adventure

Ole gasbag Barry is sporting a new 'stache, some new bling-bling,  and spouting moral equivalence, but the real laughs are on the sidelines:

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon

President Obama used the word "shukran,' which is Arabic for "thank you," in response to a compliment from King Abdullah today. The compliment? "I appreciate that you didn't bring Joe Biden."

A new poll shows Americans have a more negative view of Muslims than they did back in 2002. That's because they never hear about any of the good bombings.

Obama speech leaked - formally becomes Muslim again!

Looks like Barack Hussein Obama's speech to "the Muslim World" is going to be a real shocker - here's a leaked copy:

(put on fez)

Salaam Alaikum, brothers!

(wait for gasps, applause)

It gives me great pleasure to be here today in Cairo to offer my personal greetings to the faithful followers of Mohammed around the world and to let you know of a great change in my life.

(wait for murmurs)

When I started my presidential campaign I was a follower of a splinter Christian sect, but was not really happy there and left it. As I gave the matter more thought, I realized that my only true spiritual satisfaction was in my youth as a young Muslim worshipping at the mosque and attending lessons at the madrassa. After consulting with my good friend King Abdullah, Guardian of Mecca and Medina, I soon realized that I needed to formally return to the faith of my fathers as it was the only true path. Therefore today I am announcing that I have returned to the one true faith revealed by Mohammed and illuminated by Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab.

(wait for gasps, applause, standing ovation)

I know that this will necessarily require tremendous changes for me, the country which I rule, and for the world and I wanted to share them with you.

First, my first wife Michelle will adopt the burqa ....

(wait for standing ovation)

and return with her mother and our children to Chicago where she will supervise the construction of harem quarters at my palace in Hyde Park.

(wait for gasps and giggles)

Second, Sherif Joe Biden will gain the additional titles of Grand Eunuch and Guardian of the Harem and arrange for the construction of a harem wing to the White House Palace in Washington, DC which he will oversee when it is complete.

Third, soon to occupy the White House Harem will be my second and third wives whom I will marry shortly:

(show picture, wait for gasps, applause, whistles)

My second wife will be Sizzlean X, a Chicago Muslim of devout family  recommended to me by my good friend Supreme Minister and National Representative of the Nation of Islam, Louis Farrakhan.

(show picture, wait for gasps, applause, whistles)

My third wife will be Fatima Ahmenijhad, a niece of  another good friend, President: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran.

(As appropriate interject "She sure got all the looks in that family!")

My good friend King Abdullah is negotiating for a fourth wife from a prominent Palestinian family, but the bride price seems to be a Muslim country currently occupied by some noisy Jews so it may take a while to do a deal.

(wait for boos, catcalls, curses to subside)

However, I am working on it and when it is done the harem will be full up except for the concubines requisite for a man of my exalted position.

(wait for cheers, laughter)

And speaking of my position, I have asked my supporters in Congress to recognize my new faith by changing the title of my office to Sultan as is only appropriate. There will be a host of further actions including aggressive stimulus funding for a building program that will put an endowed mosque in every city above 10,000 in population in the USA as well as a national mosque and shrine to me in Washington DC.

(wait for applause)

This will shortly be followed by sharia law, national dress codes for women and a prohibition on the consumption of alcohol and pork, not to mention the stoning of homosexuals. Also, we will solve the banking and budget deficit crises by banning interest on loans. Even the most recalcitrant of US citizens will soon realize that everything goes better with the Religion of Peace ... one way or another.

(wait for laughter)

The USA is already one of the largest Muslim countries in the world and with these actions, and under my rule will soon become the largest and greatest Defender of the Faith. At which point, I trust, hope, and pray that you will acclaim me as the first Caliph of the Obamayyad Dynasty.

(wait for gasps, then wild applause, standing ovation)

Obama pours taxpayer money into a black hole by founding Government Motors

You have to hand it to ole Barry - his only experience with business has been building disastrous public housing projects with taxpayer money, but he has parlayed that experience into getting to play with all the cars and trucks at a real live (if nearly dead) automobile manufacturing company that has been brought low by its greedy unions.

So what do the folks actually footing the bill for Obama's indulgence of his megalomania and the obscene payback to his union supporters think about pouring more money down the black hole ? The latest polls don't print a pretty picture:

Only 21% of voters nationwide support a plan for the government to bail out General Motors as part of a structured bankruptcy plan to keep the troubled auto giant in business.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 67% are opposed to a plan that would provide GM with $50 billion in funding and give the government a 70% ownership interest in the company.

Even when presented with the stark choice between providing government funding or letting GM go out of business, only 32% of voters support the bailout. Most voters (56%) say it would be better to let GM go out of business.

Even more eye-opening are some ancillary questions:

Looking back at the bailout funding already provided, 60% say the auto bailouts were a bad idea. Two-out-of-three believe that most of the bailout money is going to those who caused the economic crisis.

Only 18% say the federal government will do a good job running GM. But they suspect the government will do all it can to help its investment. After taking ownership of GM and Chrysler, 57% expect the government will pass laws and regulations giving those companies unfair advantages over others.

Looks like the little people have their eyes wide open on this one.

Update: One final laugh - read What I Learned as a Car Czar by Romanian Lt. Gen. Ion Pacepa. One of the better passages:

The Trabant originally derived from a well regarded West German car (the DKW) made by Audi, which today produces some of the most prestigious cars in the world. In the hands of the East German government, the unfortunate DKW became a farce of a car. The bureaucrats and the union that ran the Trabant factory made the car smaller and boxier, to give it a more proletarian look. To reduce production costs, they cut down on the size of the original, already small DKW engine, and they replaced the metal body with one made of plastic-covered cardboard. What rolled off the assembly line was a kind of horseless carriage that roared like a lawn mower and polluted the air worse than a whole city block full of big Western cars.

After German reunification, the plucky little "Trabi" that East Germans used to wait 10 years to buy became an embarrassment, and its production was stopped. Germany's junkyards are now piled high with Trabants, which cannot be recycled because burning their plastic-covered cardboard bodies would release poisonous dioxins. German scientists are now trying to develop a bacterium to devour the cardboard-and-plastic body.

Plastic-covered cardboard sounds about right for Barry and his pals.

Here comes the tab for the Obama spending orgy

Bond Vigilantes Confront Obama as Housing Falters

For the first time since another Democrat occupied the White House, investors from Beijing to Zurich are challenging a president’s attempts to revive the economy with record deficit spending. Fifteen years after forcing Bill Clinton to abandon his own stimulus plans, the so-called bond vigilantes are punishing Barack Obama for quadrupling the budget shortfall to $1.85 trillion. By driving up yields on U.S. debt, they are also threatening to derail Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke’s efforts to cut borrowing costs for businesses and consumers.

Er, it's not the lightweight in the White House who is getting "punished" for his spendthrift ways - it's us as usual.

The 1.4-percentage-point rise in 10-year Treasury yields this year pushed interest rates on 30-year fixed mortgages to above 5 percent for the first time since before Bernanke announced on March 18 that the central bank would start printing money to buy financial assets. Treasuries have lost 5.1 percent in their worst annual start since Merrill Lynch & Co. began its Treasury Master Index in 1977.

“The bond-market vigilantes are up in arms over the outlook for the federal deficit,” said Edward Yardeni, who coined the term in 1984 to describe investors who protest monetary or fiscal policies they consider inflationary by selling bonds. He now heads Yardeni Research Inc. in Great Neck, New York. “Ten trillion dollars over the next 10 years is just an indication that Washington is really out of control and that there is no fiscal discipline whatsoever.”

No kidding, Mr. Yardeni, but I think the characterization of these folks as "vigilantes" while catchy, gives what is going on the wrong flavor. They are merely investors, primarily foreign and often governments, who can't be strongarmed like the GM and Chrysler bondholders and are worried about the way the printing presses are running overtime in Washington.

The bond vigilantes are being led by international investors, who own about 51 percent of the $6.36 trillion in marketable Treasuries outstanding, up from 35 percent in 2000, according to data compiled by the Treasury.

“The vigilante group is different this time around,” said Mark MacQueen, a partner and money manager at Austin, Texas- based Sage Advisory Services Ltd., which oversees $7.5 billion. “It’s major foreign creditors. This whole idea that we need to spend our way out of our problems is being questioned.”

MacQueen, who started in the bond business in 1981 at Merrill Lynch, has been selling Treasuries and moving into corporate and inflation-protected debt for the last few months.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said in March that China was “worried” about its $767.9 billion investment and was looking for government assurances that the value of its holdings would be protected.

The nation bought $5.6 billion in bills and sold $964 million in U.S. notes and bonds in February, according to Treasury data released April 15. It was the first time since November that China purchased more securities due in a year or less than longer-maturity debt.

You'd be nuts to buy long term US debt today without an inflation premium (if not a protection mechanism). Looks like inflating away his grotesque deficit isn't going to be an option for ole Mr. Hopey Changey. Still he may try it on the backs of all the average US citizens who aren't savvy or in any position to avoid it. Gee, what would be worse, watching your pension disappear down an inflation black hole or your adjustable rate mortgage spiral into the stratosphere?  How about both?

Memorial Day 2009

The stars and stripes, red, white, and blue
Wave above our heroes true
It makes us cry, it makes us weep
But in our hearts we will keep
The sacrifice our soldiers gave, they shall not die in vain
For they have given us the freedom they have fought to gain


Photo from a Worthington Ohio Scout troop. Verse from Mark Steyn's (at the time) fifth grade daughter.

Obama shocked by first USA credit card bill

Here's a laugh - Obama Says U.S. Long-Term Debt Load ‘Unsustainable’:

President Barack Obama, calling current deficit spending “unsustainable,” warned of skyrocketing interest rates for consumers if the U.S. continues to finance government by borrowing from other countries.

“We can’t keep on just borrowing from China,” Obama said at a town-hall meeting in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, outside Albuquerque. “We have to pay interest on that debt, and that means we are mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt.”

Holders of U.S. debt will eventually “get tired” of buying it, causing interest rates on everything from auto loans to home mortgages to increase, Obama said. “It will have a dampening effect on our economy.”

Gosh, who could have been maxing out the credit card?

Earlier this week, the Obama administration revised its own budget estimates and raised the projected deficit for this year to a record $1.84 trillion, up 5 percent from the February estimate. The revision for the 2010 fiscal year estimated the deficit at $1.26 trillion, up 7.4 percent from the February figure. The White House Office of Management and Budget also projected next year’s budget will end up at $3.59 trillion, compared with the $3.55 trillion it estimated previously.

But not to worry - Barry's says he's a changed man now:

Two weeks ago, the president proposed $17 billion in budget cuts, with plans to eliminate or reduce 121 federal programs. Republicans ridiculed the amount, saying that it represented one-half of 1 percent of the entire budget. They noted that Obama is seeking an $81 billion increase in other spending.

Stay tuned for the Obama tax increases, which seems to be the only possible reason for his whine.

Hey Barry, how's your porkulous plan working out?

Over at Innocent Bystanders, geoff is doing what the mainstream media won't do - compare Obama's promised results for his trillion dollar pork barrel "stimulus" plan with the actual results:

Gee, not only is the actual unemployment rate worse than Barry and the Democrat "brain trust" promised if they got their trillion dollars that we don't have to spend on stuff that we don't need, but it's worse than what they promised if we didn't have the porkulous plan at all. Is it too late to to stop the checks?

Janet Napolitano really is dumber than a sack of hammers

Janet Napolitano, Barack Obama's choice to head the Department of Homeland Security is in short order demonstrating that she is the ignorant boob that we all knew she was. First it was the canard that conservatives and veterans were rightwing extremists, then Napolitano claimed that illegal aliens weren't actually illegal, and now Naplitano demonstrates her grasp of security issues with the bogus claim that the 9/11 terrorists came from Canada. 

Can someone please tell us how U. S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano got her job? She appears to be about as knowledgeable about border issues as a late-night radio call-in yahoo.

In an interview broadcast Monday on the CBC, Ms. Napolitano attempted to justify her call for stricter border security on the premise that "suspected or known terrorists" have entered the U. S. across the Canadian border, including the perpetrators of the 9/11 attack.

All the 9/11 terrorists, of course, entered the United States directly from overseas.

 The head of the Department of Homeland Security doesn't even know where the 9/11 terrorists came from. Hmm - exactly what does she know?

Informed of her error, Ms. Napolitano blustered: "I can't talk to that. I can talk about the future. And here's the future. The future is we have borders."

She's a blooming genius. And one more Napolitano bon mot that has the Canadians rankled:

Just a few weeks ago, Ms. Napolitano equated Canada's border to Mexico's, suggesting they deserved the same treatment. Mexico is engulfed in a drug war that left more than 5,000 dead last year, and which is spawning a spillover kidnapping epidemic in Arizona. So many Mexicans enter the United States illegally that a multi-billion-dollar barrier has been built from Texas to California to keep them out.

In Canada, on the other hand, the main problem is congestion resulting from cross-border trade. Not quite the same thing, is it?

Who knows when you're dealing with an idiot like Napolitano. She can probably figure a way to equate the two. Time to retire, Janet.

The real story of the Maersk Alabama rescue

Did you find the events surrounding the Navy SEAL rescue of Maersk Alabama Capt. Phillips a trifle puzzling?  Here's the latest word on what really happened which is now beginning to leak out:

Having spoken to some SEAL pals here in Virginia Beach yesterday and asking why this thing dragged out for 4 days, I got the following:

1. BHO wouldn't authorize the DEVGRU/NSWC SEAL teams to the scene for 36 hours going against OSC (on scene commander) recommendation.
   
2. Once they arrived, BHO imposed restrictions on their ROE that they couldn't do anything unless the hostage's life was in "imminent" danger
   
3. The first time the hostage jumped, the SEALS had the raggies all sighted in, but could not fire due to ROE restriction
   
4. When the navy RIB came under fire as it approached with supplies, no fire was returned due to ROE restrictions. As the raggies were shooting at the RIB, they were exposed and the SEALS had them all dialed in.
   
5. BHO specifically denied two rescue plans developed by the Bainbridge CPN and SEAL teams
   
6. Bainbridge CPN and SEAL team CDR finally decide they have the OpArea and OSC authority to solely determine risk to hostage. 4 hours later, 3 dead raggies
   
7. BHO immediately claims credit for his "daring and decisive" behaviour. As usual with him, it's BS.

More details:

Philips’s first leap into the warm, dark water of the Indian Ocean hadn’t worked out as well. With the Bainbridge in range and a rescue by his country’s Navy possible, Philips threw himself off of his lifeboat prison, enabling Navy shooters onboard the destroyer a clear shot at his captors — and none was taken. The guidance from National Command Authority — the President of the United States, Barack Obama — had been clear: a peaceful solution was the only acceptable outcome to this standoff unless the hostage’s life was in clear, extreme danger.

The next day, a small Navy boat approaching the floating raft was fired on by the Somali pirates — and again no fire was returned and no pirates killed, thanks again to the cautious stance assumed by Navy personnel due to the combination of a lack of clear guidance from Washington, and a mandate from the Commander in Chief’s staff not to act until Obama, a man with no background of dealing with such issues and no track record of decisiveness, decided that any outcome other than a “peaceful solution” would be acceptable.

After taking fire from the Somali kidnappers again Saturday night, the on-scene commander decided he’d had enough. Keeping his authority to act in the case of a clear and present danger to the hostage’s life, and having heard nothing from Washington since yet another request to mount a rescue operation had been denied the day before, the Navy officer — unnamed in all media reports to date — decided the AK-47 one captor had leveled at Philips’ back was a threat to the hostage’s life, and ordered the NSWC team to take their shots.

Three rounds downrange later, all three brigands became enemy KIA, and Philips was safe.

I wonder when Obama will reprimand (secretly or otherwise) the Navy personnnel who toasted his Somali cousins before he could apologize and pay them reparations?

Glenn Beck at the Alamo Tea Party

Glenn Beck explains it all and rocks the house at the Alamo Tea Party in San Antonio: