Retro 7, Part 7, The Obama Presidency, The End Of An Error - Miscellaneous Failures and Disappointments

We originally ran this post back in October at around the 100 day mark of the final days of the Obama Presidency. We ended up running about seven blog posts which did a deep dive into the activities, acomplishmentsand failures of this Presidency. We found very little in the way of accomplishments but dozens and dozens of cases of falures and disasters, from the economy to foreign affairs to the basic concept of integrity. We are going to rerun those post over the next week or so as we close in on an end of an error, the Obama Presidency.

Part 7, The Obama Presidency, The End Of An Error - Miscellaneous Failures and Disappointments

As we near the end of the Obama Presidency, I thought it would be a good idea at the 100 day mark to review what he has done to and for this country over the past eight years. Before we do that, though, let me repeat my previous background statements on my past political actions:

• I have never voted for a Republican Presidential candidate in my life and I have been voting since the the Nixon era.
• Until 2010, I have never voted for a Republican for national office in my life.
• I am not affiliated with nor do I associate myself with the Republican Party, conservatives or people like Donald Trump.

Okay, now that we understand where I am coming from, let me just say that in my opinion Barack Obama has been the most inept, most divisive, most narcissist and worst diplomat in my lifetime to reside in the White House. From the economy, to race relations, to the national debt, to foreign relations to government operations, to blatant disregard for existing laws and the Constitution, in just about any measure we are far worse off as a nation than prior to him coming into office.

We will breaking down the failures and disappointments of this administration into some broad categories that will take us a number of days to cover as we analyze “The Obama Presidency - The End Of An Error.” Over the past week we have touched on a number of broad categories of Obama’s failures:

Broken Promises and Lies: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-1-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

Broken Laws and Constitution Violations: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-2-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

Once a Community Organizer, Still A Conmmunity Organizer:  http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-3-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

Foreign Affairs and Diplomatic Disasters: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-4-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

The Unimpressive Set Of Obama "Firsts:" http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-5-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

Gross Economic Management: http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2016/10/part-6-obama-presidency-end-of-error.html

Today, will be our last review of the many, many failures of the Obama administration and we will focus on a bunch of miscellaneous failures and other stuff that I have found trivial, repugnant, and embarrassing from this administration over the past eight years. These topics are in addition to the failures we have already discussed over the past six posts including Obama Care failures, foreign affairs failures, economic failures, and the scores of broken promises and lies from this President.

Miscellaneous Failures and Other Stuff 

When Obama spoke at the funeral of the Hawaiian Senator Daniel Inouye, a decorated World War II soldier and long time Senator, Obama's ego and narcissism was so large that he mentioned himself far more times than he mentioned the Senator. 

When Neil Armstrong died, Obama’s ego and narcissism was so large that he sent out a picture of himself looking up at the sky with no visual of Armstrong at all:

When Rosa Parks’s bus rebellion was being celebrated, Obama’s ego and narcissism was so large that he posted a picture of himself sitting in the bus seat where Rosa Parks sat but with no visual of Rosa Parks at all:

When Muhammad Ali died, Obama’s ego and narcissism was so large that he published a picture of himself underneath an Ali picture:

While on the Tonight Show, Obama joked that his bowling talents were the equivalent of a Special Olympics kid: “It's like -- it was like Special Olympics, or something."Class act, not.

Obama exchanged an Army deserter, Bowe Bergdahl, for five high value and dangerous terrorists who were imprisoned at the Guantanamo terrorist prison, endangering the lives of innocents all over the Middle East and the world.

He then turned around and invited the deserter’s parents to a White House press event and a private meeting with himself while ignoring the families and soldiers who were wounded and killed when they went out to rescue the deserter Bergdahl.

When a Ferguson, Missouri African American young man assaulted a store owner, stole from the store owner’s store, and tried to assault a police officer, actions that resulted in his fatal shooting by the police officer, Obama sent three members of his administration to the funeral. But when a young, Caucasian woman in San Francisco was killed while walking down an American street by an illegal immigrant, who had been arrested multiple times and deported multiple times but allowed to roam the streets by the Obama administration, the Obama White House was silent and sent no members of his administration to her funeral.

While over two dozen Americans were fighting for their lives in Benghazi, the President went to bed and then rose early to fly to a political fundraiser in Las Vegas.

His administration cooked up a lie about the cause of the Benghazi attacks in order to protect a campaign talking point and then lied to the world and the country via a United Nations speech.

He belittled and taunted millions of common American citizens that have legitimate scientific concerns and doubts about the whole global warming/climate change myth.

He played over 300 rounds of golf, attended a record number of political fundraising events, and went on many, many lavish vacations, after promising to have no personal life during his first Presidential campaign.

He took time off from work, despite the wide amount of issues and problems facing Americans today, to waste vast amounts of time to annually go on ESPN to discuss his college basketball March Madness picks, film an TV advertisement for a comedy show, he allowed himself to be interviewed by a lady who once filmed herself taking a milk bath filled with Fruit Loops, and wasted vast amounts of other Presidential time to go on many other TV shows.

Although he constantly promised to fix the broken processes and procedures at the dysfuncitonal Veterans Affairs Agency (VA), years later the VA was still totally dysfunctional with veterans not getting the medical help they need and were pronmised ansdmany dying as a result of this incompetence.

He enjoyed multiple vacations, rounds of golf, and political fundraisers while millions of Americans near the Gulf Of Mexico were fighting for their livelihoods and homes as a result of a massive oil platform disaster.

When American James Foley was gruesomely beheaded in the Middle East by ISIS terrorists, Obama treated this event as an inconvenience that was interfering with his golf tee time, throwing together a half ass press conference after which he immediately headed to the course, never consoling Mr. Foley’s family like he did for Army deserter Bergdahl.

Whenever someone says something negative about Islamic terrorism, Obama gets vocal and offended but as Islamic terrorists practice genocide against religious minorities across the Middle East he is silent.

Whenever someone says something negative about Islamic terrorism, Obama gets vocal and offended but as Islamic terrorists enslave and torture religious minority women across the Middle East he is silent.

He conducted secret nuclear weapons negotiations with the terrorist Iranian regime that resulted in secret side deals in addition to a horrible public nuclear arms treaty.

He paid a $400 million cash ransom for the release of four Americans being illegally held by the Iranian regime, simultaneously violating the current and long standing U.S. policy of paying ransom to terrorists and likely giving a cash infusion into Iranian terrorist activities around the Middle East.

He allowed his Secretary of State to operate a crime syndicate that traded U.S. interests and assets for massive personal financial gain of that Secretary of State.

His administration interfered with several ongoing FBI criminal investigations to ensure that his former Secretary of State never went to jail or was held accountable for her crimes and transgressions.

After declining steadily for decades, the national level of violent crime has reversed this long term trend and may be starting to rise again.

He allowed several members of his cabinet to use secret email accounts and processes in direct violation of government regulations and laws.

Over six years since the Dodd-Frank legislation was passed, whose intent was to ensure that the conditions that caused the Great Recession never occurred again, his administration has still not completed the necessary government regulations and rules to implement that legislation, rendering it useless.

The following failures of the Obama administration are also common to recent Presidential administrations. However, just because other, recent administrations were not successful in these areas does not mean that the Obama Presidency was also not a failure. Keep in mind that these failures occurred despite the Obama administration spending about $30 TRILLION during its tenure, in other words, about $25 TRILLION spent and we have only the following failures to show for it:

• We are still under educating our kids relative to the kids around the world.
• We still have no effective and overarching energy strategy to wean us off of foreign energy sources.
• We still have no fair, comprehensive, and effective immigration policy.
• Our borders are still not secure allowing illegal drugs, foreign criminals, and quite probably terrorists to enter the country, endangering the lives of Americans.
• We are still losing the “War on Drugs.”
• Government operations are still inefficient, ineffective, wasteful, criminally infested, and expensive.
• Our country’s infrastructure is still falling apart.
• Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid are still rushing towards financial insolvency with no plans proposed or in place to prevent their financial collapse.
• The possibility of peace in the Middle East has never been further out of reach.
• Health care costs are still rising dramatically despite Obama Care with no solution to this debacle proposed or likely.

Now, please do not come back to me and say Obama cannot be blamed for these failures because Republicans impeded him at all times. This is a bogus argument for three reasons:

1. In the first two years of his term, his political allies controlled both houses of Congress and he still was unable to get any of the above issues resolved except for passing the failed Obama Care legislation and the still incomplete Dodd-Frank regulations.
2. He has not proposed any solutions to the impending failure of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, he has not proposed any comprehensive plans to bring peace to the Middle East, he has not proposed any solutions for our failing public schools, etc., so the Republicans could not have blocked any of his plans and solutions since he never developed and presented them inthe first place.
3. Did I mention that his administration spent over $25 TRILLION and still could not resolve any of the above issues?

That will do it for our summary of the many, many failures of the Obama administration. They touched on just about any imaginable topic and area, from lies and lack of integrity to the unfolding disaster that is Obama Care to a completely failed foreign relations and diplomatic effort, etc., etc., This is the most ineffective, wasteful, and dysfunctional Presidency of my lifetime.

As we said previously in this series, eight years ago a community organizer with little international and Washington experience became President. Eight years later we have a soon to be ex-President who never matured into an effective leader, leaving office as the same small minded community organizer of eight years ago.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:


http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

July, 2015, Part 5, Political Class Insanity: Hunting Down Whistleblowers, Obama's Golf Hypocrisy, and More

At the beginning of each month we take a week or so to review the latest insanity from the American political class. Insanity from them includes a wide range of very depressing actions which can include wasteful spending, idiotic quotes, an inefficient and ineffective government bureaucracy, failed economic policies, etc. Every month we continue to prove that we are being served by the worst set of politicians ever.

And as you will see, this month’s review and discussions do nothing to prove that this thesis is wrong in any way:

1) We reported last month that the TSA airport inspectors had flunked simulated weapons and bomb searches 95% of the time when tested for the ability to identify airline passengers carrying weapons or bombs. One would have hope that the TSA would be putting all available resources towards fixing an error rate of 95% relative to the safety of the traveling public.

One could hope but one would be wrong. According to a recent Washington Examiner article, the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, the home of the TSA, testified in front of Congress that he was investigating the leak findings of the undercover operation in which investigators were able to slip through airport security with weapons and phony bombs more than 95 percent of the time: “We have started an investigation to determine where the leak was,” Inspector General John Roth told the Senate Homeland Security Committee.

Yes, the TSA cannot do its job 95% of the time and they are looking for the person who exposed them, not doing everything possible to fix the situation. And why would they go headhunting, whistleblower hunting: “I was as disturbed as anyone that this information got into the media,” the inspector general said.

Whoever leaked the information should get a medal, not hunted down. Who knows if we ever would have found out how inept the TSA is, based on their failure rate of 95% in this test, and how we are certainly not getting our money’s worth funding such incompetence. Knowing how untransparent the Obama administration is, we need every whistleblower we can get.

2) But the airport whistleblower is not the only whistleblower to be harassed by the Federal government and the Obama administration. Taylor Johnson was a senior special agent for Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE). a division within the Department of Homeland Security. Her story is even more harrowing since the Department actually identified her as a whistleblower and then, according to her statements to the press and Congress, they went after her with a vengence.

According to Fox News: Johnson told lawmakers she ran into resistance after investigating the so-called EB-5 program, which offers visas to investors. She said she looked into the program over concerns about security risks, questioning whether visas were being approved with little scrutiny.

According to a CSPAN transcript: “I began investigating the EB-5 Regional Center, and some of the violations investigated surrounding the project included bank and wire fraud and I discovered ties to organized crime and high-ranking politicians and they received promotions that appeared to facilitate the program. I disclosed this to my management and then specific examples of national security risks, and some of the security risks coincided with what the FBI and CIA already discovered as well. During the course of the investigation, I discovered applicants from China, Russia, Pakistan, Malaysia had been approved in as little as 16 days and the files lacked the basic and necessary law enforcement enquires,” Johnson said.

She did her job and then the following started to rain down on her:

• Other government agencies and high ranking Washington politicians started to complain about her findings.
• Their complaints resulted in her being removed from the investigation.
• She was placed on administrative leave and forced to turn in her weapon and credentials.
• But in her own words to Congress, it then got really nasty: “My government vehicle was confiscated, and access to the building and all government databases was revoked and I was told I could not carry my own weapon, which was a constitutional violation. When an adoption social worker tried to contact and verify employment, she was told I had been terminated for a federal offense and I almost lost my 1-year-old child. I am continuously placed in dangerous situations with no way to protect myself or others.”
• When asked to try to explain why the Federal government was coming after her, she opined: “I think that because of the people that were involved with the investigation, it was put in a different light and there was extra outside influences and back and forth with the different members and different agencies.”

Again, so much for the most open and transparent administration ever, just one of dozens of broken promises or outright lies from this Presidency. God bless the whistleblowers for their integrity and courage, two characteristic sorely lacking from today’s Washington politicians and bureaucrats.

3) One thing that the political class does very well is hypocrisy. Obama Care is great for the country...but not for Washington politicians. We all need to sacrifice for the good of the country...but no Washington politicians. We all need to do our part to fix the man made global warming/climate change problems… but not the President. 

Obama recently took another trip, an another expensive cross country trip to California, to attend several political fundraisers, one of well over seven hundred he has already done in less than seven years in office. He flew directly to northern California. At one of the fund raisers, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi heralded his visit to “a state that is in the lead on climate change.” Hurrah.

But that is when the bad optics started. Rather than stay in northern California to play golf, which I am sure has some great golf courses, the President hopped on Air Force One and traveled to southern California. Specifically, he flew to Palm Springs where he played golf on the ultra exclusive Annenberg Estate Sunnylands golf course. 

Thus, he took a large plane and burned lord knows how much carbon just to get to a far away golf course. He upbraids those of us that do not totally buy into the whole man made global warming theory. Cannot be that bad if you can jet around just to play a specific golf course. Or is this just another example of Washington hypocrisy, you out there in the country make the sacrifices while we continue to live the good life here inside the Beltway.

Even some of the liberal environmental groups got on his case for this lack of good sense. According to the New York Times, Friends of the Earth President Erich Pica said, “President Obama needs to take a mulligan and rethink golfing in Palm Springs in the middle of a drought.” And they were not the only ones to call out just another case of political hypocrisy.

4) One last piece of insanity for today. Despite veterans not getting the healthcare they were promised, despite millions of suffering drug addicts across the country, despite millions of people still not getting the medical care they need, despite millions of homeless and hungry Americans, the Federal government and the American taxpayer spent about half a million dollars for a Johns Hopkins effort to study the anal penetration of young black men.

Let me repeat that. Yes, in light of all the other suffering Americans, the Federal government sponsored a study to look at the impact of anal penetration of young black men: “Prior work has demonstrated that same-sex relationship trajectories support the development of self-esteem in young gay and bisexual men, while opposite same-sex relationships may be associated with homonegativity. Little is known about the meaning and function of first same-sex experience in AA adolescent men and whether satisfaction with first penetrative same-sex experience impacts sexual trajectories."

The study abstract, if you do not believe $500,000 was spent on this project, can be accessed at:

http://projectreporter.nih.gov/project_info_description.cfm?aid=8669742&icde=24280595

Let’s end the insanity here for today. Half a million dollars to study a very small sub-segment of Americans health and life issues while very large segments of Americans are still suffering in oh so many ways, a President who says one thing about global warming but does the opposite in order to not interfere with his golf addiction, and the Obama adminstration hunting down whistleblowers who are only doing their job and who actually care more about the country and its citizens than their own well being, a trait sadly lacking in today’s politician. More insanity tomorrow.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

April, 2015, Part 1, Political Class Insanity: Our Golfing Addicted President, Sex Partying DEA Agents, and More

It is the beginning of another month which means it is time to review the latest political class insanity that has cropped up over the past 30 days or so. As regular readers of this blog know, political class insanity comes in many different forms including, but not limited to, the following craziness:

• Spending taxpayer wealth on idiotic programs and projects.
• Wasting taxpayer wealth on their own selfish financial and political needs.
• Implementing legislation to resolve problems that make the original problems worse or which created unintended bad consequences as a result of their legislation.
• Implementing legislation that supports their political donors and financial backers rather than the typical American citizen.
• Issuing idiotic and stupid comments.
• Overseeing government organizations that are incompetent, inefficient, ineffective, and wasteful of taxpayer wealth.

As always, it is highly likely we will identify new forms of insanity over the next few days as we review the past ineptness coming out of Washington and other bastions of American politicians.

1) The current state of the world is not good:

• Yemen has become a lawless country infested with at least three different terrorist groups.
• Egypt and Saudi Arabia are bombing Yemen.
• ISIS is still running wild and growing in northern Iraq and Syria.
• The Obama administration is about to sign off on an agreement that will make Iran able to develop nuclear weapons capability in a relatively short time frame.
• Our relations at the highest levels of government between our traditional ally and only democracy in the Middle East, Israel, and the U.S.Federal government is at an all time low.
• The economic growth situation in the this country and the related employment situation is still stagnant.
• Our borders still leak, our public schools still continue to under educate, we are still losing our war on drugs, and we still do not have a long term energy strategy for the country.

Given this context, according to a recent Washington Examiner report and other news reports:

• President Obama recently jetted down to Florida for a round of golf on the taxpayer tab at an exclusive Florida country club.
• This was the 222nd round of golf he has played since becoming President, by far the most rounds of Presidential golf played since the Eisenhower Presidency six decades ago.
• According to Air Force documents obtained by the Judicial Watch, it costs $210,877 an hour to fly Air Force One, putting the round trip price tag at $843,508 for this one round of Presidential golf.
• According to press reports from members of the media flying with the President, the beer started flowing shortly after takeoff at 9:30 am, leading to the following press pool report: "You can tell this is a non work trip because someone forward of the press cabin ordered 3 beers at 9:26 a.m."
• In order to not photograph or report on the President during his round of golf, all members of the media were shuttered into a shack on the golf course until the round was done.

Certainly another “bad optics” experience for this Presidency, another bad set of priorities, another piece of insanity, given the multitude of crises facing the country that have erupted during his time in office.

2) We are less than three weeks away from filing our Federal income taxes, an act that if not done properly and on time could result in fines and jail time for most Americans. I say for most Americans, since again in 2014, the IRS has found that for many Federal employees, paying only some of none of their Federal income taxes appears to be acceptable:

• More than 100,00 Federal employees did not pay or part of their Federal income taxes employees.
• It represents almost 4% of the Federal workforce who are in violation of IRS rules and laws.
• They are depriving the Federal government and the American taxpayer $1.14 billion in unpaid Federal income taxes.
• Among categories of Americans who receive direct compensation from the Federal government, only retired military veterans have a higher tax evasion rate, 4.04%, likely because many of them are homeless or unemployed as compared to Federal government employees that are employed and making really good money and salaries.
• 500 House of Representative staffers owe a combined $6.7 million to the IRS for unpaid Federal income taxes.last year.
• This 100,000 level establishes a new record high for tax evasion by Federal employees.

Another example of total dysfunction on the part of the Federal government and the politicians who are supposed to be overseeing their operations. The IRS obviously knows who these tax evaders are, they know how much they are evading, so why is it so hard to confiscate their government wages until their tax debt is wiped out? 

Sounds simple but as we have often shown with our insanity posts, even simple is often beyond the reach and capability of today’s politicians. But you can be sure that if you or I did not pay all of our taxes, our fate would be far worse than those who are tax evading Federal employees.

3) Another example of dysfunction of the Federal government and those that oversee its operations cropped up in a Special Security Administration (SSA) Inspector General report and audit. That audit found that the SSA had live, valid Social Security numbers on record for 6.5 million Americans that are over 112 years old.

This is interesting since:

• According to Census records, there are only about 6.0 million living Americans who are over the age of 85, making it impossible to have 6.5 million over the age of 112.
• According to Wikipedia, there are about 16 Americans living in the country today who are over the age of 110.

Which obviously raises some simple questions relative to 6.5 million lived SSA accounts:

• How many of those 6.5 million accounts are being used by relatives of deceased Americans who have kept the account alive and are illegally receiving Social Security benefit payments?
• How many of those 6.5 million accounts are being used by organized crime to skim and scam taxpayer wealth out of the SSA?
• How many of those 6.5 million accounts are being used by illegal immigrants to illegally stay in this country, find work in this country, and get illegal benefits in this country from the SSA?

There is a really simple solution to this problem. Identify the 16 Americans who are actually still alive, put their SSA numbers aside, and then cancel the remaining 6.5 million SSA numbers and see what happens. 

Odds are the criminals will move onto to other endeavors once they realize the jig is up and using deceased Americans’ Social Security numbers, saving billions in taxpayer wealth. Anyone who shows up and complains about losing a valid number is likely a criminal and should be arrested for SSA fraud.

Simple, right? But again, much too hard for the political class to comprehend and to force the Federal government to do. Another pathetic example of wasting taxpayer wealth as a result of government incompetence.

4) More government operations incompetence. According to recent news reports:

• Federal Drug Enforcement (DEA) agents operating in Columbia over the years apparently were treated to sex parties, courtesy of the local drug cartels, the same people and organizations that the agents were supposed to be shutting down.
• Many of the sex parties and prostitutes were hosted at rented DEA facilities and offices where sensitive electronic equipment such as computers and smartphones were available to be compromised.
• The cartels provided security for DEA agents’ weapons during the sex parties.

News reports on the sex parties can be viewed at:

http://www.mrctv.org/videos/nbc-continues-ignore-report-dea-sex-parties-funded-drug-cartels

These sex parties occurred over a number of years but recently came to light. One has to wonder if there are others that have not yet been uncovered. Another example of a dysfunctional government operation and poor or no oversight by the politicians that are supposed to keep these operations efficient, focused, and effective. Touch to be any of those things when the sex is free.

A President that would rather golf and fund raise than lead, 100,000 Federal government employees who seem to think that filing and paying incomes taxes is optional, a Social Security Administration which seems to think the fountain of youth exists at least within their records, and a DEA set of agents who party at drug cartel expense.

That’s enough for today, which turned out to be a focus on the overall incompetence of the Federal government and the political oversight that has failed to make these operations and entities a worthwhile investment for the taxpayer. More and varied insanity to follow in the upcoming days.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.bankruptingamerica.org
http://www.conventionofstates.com
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

September, 2014 Political Class Insanity, Part 7: We Do Not Have A Strategy ...Or Any Competence For That Matter Either

This will be the seventh and final update to our monthly series of political class insanity for this month. Not because I have covered all of the insanity but because it is just too depressing to go on. The overwhelming incompetence and wasteful spending of these politicians can get you very depressed after a while.

Thus, we will finish this month’s update with the following nuggets of idiocy and move onto other topics starting tomorrow. 

1) The fine website, Against Crony Capitalism, had a nice review of how rich American companies are the happy receivers of outsized taxpayer funded subsidies every year. Their review asserts that, on average, each of the largest 100 companies in the country receives $200 million from the US taxpayer, each year. Some more than others of course.

Examples of this crony capitalism from the latest year of data include:

• General Electric - $380 million
• General Motors - $370 million (as if the American taxpayer has not already given this company enough money)
• Boeing -$264 million
• Archer Daniels Midland - $174 million
• United Technologies - $160 million
• Others who got free taxpayer money include John Deere, JP Morgan, Wells Fargo, Citigroup, Bank of America, Walmart, and American Express.

These are multi-billion dollar enterprises, their shareowners should be shouldering these expenses since they are the ones that benefit, not the American taxpayer. Unfortunately, these same companies and their executives contribute heavily to politicians’ election campaign funds so it is not a surprise that they get rewarded for such support.

2) The President stated this past week in a news conference that his administration did not have a strategy for dealing with the ISIS terror threat that is building up in Iraq and Syria. These terrorists are barbarians and a severe threat not only to the U.S. but also to humanity itself. 

According to recent news reports, this growing threat has been well known within this administration and this President for a few years. However, it has done nothing to combat it as the threat has gotten larger and more powerful. So little has been done that the President publicly admitted that “we don’t have a strategy yet” for defeating ISIS.

Despite this lack of focus and a strategy for dealing with this threat, the President did find time two weekends ago to attend multiple fundraisers in New York and Rhode Island and a wedding in that same area. Yes, possibly the biggest terror threat to the country can wait as this President attends what I believe to be the 401st through 403rd political fund raiser of his term in office, far exceeding the number of fund raisers attended by all previous Presidents. Since he has also played more golf while in office since Eisenhower, over fifty years ago, one has to really question the insane priorities of this President.

Since according to a recent Rasmussen poll, only 23% of the electorate think America is heading in the right direction, and 69% think it is on the wrong track, maybe Americans are finally actually questioning his priorities and his insanity.

3) According to a recent article on the Black Community News website, a Pew and USA Today opinion survey of 1,501 adults found that 69% say blacks and whites get along “very well” or “pretty well.” Apparently this finding represents a “modest” drop since 2009.

Thus, this President has failed so much as a leader that the first African American President has somehow managed to slightly degrade race relations in this country, not improve them as he promised. His administration has been divisive rather than inclusive, often using the “race card” for political benefit rather than racial and political harmony. The numbers prove it.

4) Staying with race for a while, according to a Wall Street Journal report that was summarized in the April 4, 2014 issue of The Week magazine, in 2008, the last year of the Bush administration, 8.2% of the Federal government’s Small Business Administration loans went to African-American business people. 

Since then, covering the first five years of the Obama administration, the first Presidential administration headed by an African-American, that percentage has dropped to only 1.7% of Small Business administration loans going to African-American business people in 2013. But the President’s supporters call people like me racist, who have an honestly different of opinion on policy, but ignore the fact that the support for African-American businesses is down almost 80% in just five years under this President. Insane.

5) Anemic economic growth, heavy fighting in the Ukraine, a large and growing terrorism threat from the Middle East, high unemployment, failing public schools, a failed war on drugs, a leaky border and associated illegal immigration crisis, etc. One would hope that all members of the Washington political class would be busting their tails to address and hopefully resolve at least some of these issues.

But seeking hope from these politicians is usually a fruitless search. According to a recent article in Business Week, once Congress returns from its five week summer vacation, The House of Representatives will be in session for only twelve days in September, twelve days in October, and then take off again, returning after the November elections to put in only fifteen more days until the end of the year.

If I counted correctly, over those four months there are 87 days on the calendar that are not weekends or holidays. Thus, despite the major issues facing this country, the House will only be working for 39 of those days or less than half of the working days most Americans will be working, assuming they are lucky enough to have a job. 

For this kind of pitiful dedication to their jobs, these people make more than three times the amount of money that the average household in American earns each year. They also have better benefits and working conditions and can obviously set their own schedules, which they obviously set very light. Pathetic excuse for public servants, no wonder nothing ever gets accomplished in D.C.

6) We will finish up this post and this monthly series update on political class insanity from the wonderful website, Bankrupting America: 

• According to the latest Congressional Budget Office analyses, Federal government debt hit a 64-year high this past fiscal year: “Federal debt held by the public will reach 74 percent of GDP at the end of this fiscal year—more than twice what it was at the end of 2007 and higher than in any year since 1950.” In addition, interest payments on the debt will total more than $799 billion in 2024 or almost $7,000 for every American household. Outrageous and dangerous debt numbers that may never be reached because the economy crashes far before these onerous levels of debt are attained.
• The Federal government announced that the U.S. economy grew at a 4.2% rate in the second quarter, which is good news. The bad news is that this follows a contraction of the economy in the first quarter, making the midyear to date economic growth only 1.05%, still leaving the Obama administration with the worst economic recovery record since World War II.
• In related news, the CBO has halved its 2014 national economic growth estimate down from 3.1% to 1.5%. These numbers continue to confirm that Obama and Congress still have no grasp of economic policy and theory and how to put forth economic polices that foster robust growth.
• Although the rollout of Obama Care was badly botched by both administration employees and contract employees, it turns out that the American taxpayer will be paying for their incompetence. The Inspector General (IG) for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a report showing that private contractors associated with and hired for the rollout of Obama Care exceeded their original estimated costs. The new report shows that one-third of the 60 Obama Care contractors examined are set to be overpaid, while seven companies are due to receive more than double their initial estimates.
• Sticking with Obama Care incompetence, Nevada insurance brokers are suing the Nevada Obama Care state health insurance exchange over unpaid Commissions. According to local news accounts: “Nevada’s health insurance exchange faces yet another big lawsuit. Six brokers filed a lawsuit Tuesday in Clark County District Court, seeking class-action status for their claim that the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange and its website contractor, Xerox, have failed to pay commissions on coverage they sold through the exchange’s Nevada Health Link website. Matt Callister, an attorney representing the brokers, said the six are collectively owed ‘a very significant amount well in excess of $200,000.’”

So many failures in so many ways. Crony capitalism, lack of a strategy or ability to think strategically, making race relations worse rather than better, the never ending disasters from Obama Care, skyrocketing national debt, a Congress and White House that take more vacations than deserved, etc. It is insanity, the worst set of politicians operating a broken Federal government at a very high expense with little societal benefit in return. Pathetically insane.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

Is The Obama Administration Just A Reincarnation of TV's "Car 54" Sitcom?

We have never been a big fan of Barack Obama. We could go into all of the shortcomings of his administration and personal management style but we have already done that many times before. 

The most recent attempt at framing his failed administration was last month. At that time, we did a series of posts that covered 122 reasons why his administration justly deserves the recent and dubious honor of being viewed by a third of America in a Gallup poll as the worst Presidential administration since 1945. Those 122 reasons can be reviewed at your leisure at:

http://loathemygovernment.blogspot.com/2014/07/part-1-why-obama-administration.html

But those 122 distinct reasons still do not totally capture the feeling and sense of why this is a failed administration. It is more a sense of disinterest that this President often has in doing his job. He is more like a prince than a President. He likes his photo ops with athletic teams and famous celebrities rather than the nitty gritty details and tedium of actually governing. 

He loves to travel the world giving speeches or going on vacations, all paid for by the American taxpayer. 

He loves to play golf even when world events are crying out for his attention and leadership. 

Fundraisers and schmoozing are more important to him even when Americans are desperately fighting for their lives in Benghazi. 

Princely behavior, yes. Presidential leadership, no.

All of these actions and his overall inattention to governing led me to the startling conclusion that he is not very different from an old 1960s sitcom television show, "Car 54". The theme music to the show went as follows (for younger readers, Idlewild was the name of JFK airport in New York City prior to the Kennedy assassination, Khruschev was the Russian Premier at that time):

There's a hold-up in the Bronx,

Brooklyn's broken out in fights,
There's a traffic jam in Harlem
That's backed up to Jackson Heights.
There's a Scout troop short a child,
Khrushchev's due at Idlewild,
CAR 54, WHERE ARE YOU?

(music)

There's a hold-up in the Bronx,
Brooklyn's broken out in fights,
There's a traffic jam in Harlem
That's backed up to Jackson Heights.
There's a Scout troop short a child,
Khrushchev's due at Idlewild,
CAR 54, WHERE ARE YOU?

The YouTube version of the original TV show theme song can be seen and heard at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ocra_xWHnlg

Which got me to thinking: the lead characters in the Car 54 series, Toody and Muldoon, were not much different than this President. They always seemed to be out of contact and unreachable, besides being incompetent in their job, when crises were going down. 

What would it take to adapt the Car 54 theme song to this Presidential administration? In a few hours of scribbling, I found out that Car 54 really was not much different than this Presidency:

Unemployment is appalling,
GDP it keeps on falling,
Putin’s warring in the Ukraine,
Malaysia lost another airplane,
Cartels are on the border,
Chi-town has no law and order,
BARACK OBAMA WHERE ARE YOU?

Christians slaughtered in Iraq,
Federal debt is out of whack,
Constitution getting shredded,
While veterans can’t get medics,
Middle East is under fire,
Obama Care cost going higher,
BARACK OBAMA WHERE ARE YOU?

Foreign girls are being taken,
But your golf game’s not forsaken,
Hoping soon you’ll start to lead,
Your fundraisers serve no need,
Your promises have been broke,
Your photo ops are a joke,
BARACK OBAMA WHERE ARE YOU?

Sad but true even if done in a comical light. There is a whole lot of angst, death, war, and misery going on in the world but that seems to be secondary to this President, and this Congress, as most if not all of them are about to embark on a long, carefree summer vacation.

Unfortunately, I have absolutely no musical talent at all so I am totally unable to take the above parody words and translate them into a good sounding, musical parody of this administration using the Car 54 theme music. If anyone out there wants to take that step, I welcome your musical ability to try your best shot of adopting these words to the Car 54 theme music. I would be more than happy to share your creation in this blog, its related Twitter page, and several Facebook pages that promote freedom and liberty. 

Who knows, these words with your musical talents, might finally wake up some people in this country and show them that we are being served by a Washington political class that is no more competent or serious than a 1960s television sitcom. Good luck!

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now: http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w

December, 2013 Political Class Insanity, Part 2: A Million Dollar Bus Stop, Another Gem From Nancy Pelosi, Too Much Obama Golf, and More

This is the second post this month in our monthly series that examines the latest wackiness, wastefulness, and pure insanity from the American political class. This series does not include the dire consequences and lunacy of Obama Care, we do a monthly series now on that fiasco in the middle of each month. Today and for the next few days we will be looking at plain old idiocy and wasteful spending, incidents that would be funny if they were not so damaging to our freedoms and wealth.

1) When any human bureaucracy gets too large, the output and work of that organizations starts becoming petty, trivial, and plain stupid. That is because as the bureaucracy grows, people realize that the work they are doing is trivial and meaningless because there are too many people trying to look productive with too little real work to do.

As the biggest bureaucracy in the history of mankind, the Federal government certainly fits that bill. A prime example is from a recent article put out by the Heritage Foundation.

The Federal government is requiring General Motors (GM) to recalling 18,941 newer Chevy Camaros for violating Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard No. 208—Occupant Crash Protection. Wow, this is important. Who wants to be in a car that is a safety hazard, kudos to the Feds.

Is the safety defect because of defective seat belts? Ah, no.

Is the safety defect because of a air bag malfunction? Ah, no.

Is the safety defect because of brake failure? Ah, no.

The government is forcing GM to recall 18,941 Chevy Camaros because the air bag warning label on the sun visor may peel. Not always peel, almost always peel, just might peel. Seriously.

Here’s a solution: why not have GM send out new stickers with really strong clue to all of its customers and also its dealers, instructing the dealers to put the stickier sticker on the car when the customer brings their Camaro in for servicing? That way GM could save some money by avoiding a recall and either use the saved money to make even safer cars or start using this type of money to repay the American taxpayer the $10 billion it still owes us (see yesterday’s post). 

No, some nitwit, useless bureaucrat, in order to justify his existence, makes GM incur probably millions of dollars worth of unneeded costs to replace stickers, stickers that probably the vast number of customers never read or care about anyway. Government insanely out of control.

2) When Bush left office in 2008, the Federal government was responsible for just over $100 billion worth of student loans. That figure had grown about 78% during his eight years in office, saddling every U.S. household with a potential loan and debt liability of just under $100 per household if those loans were defaulted on.

Under Obama, that overall debt burden has increase almost seven fold in just five years of this administration, saddling the American taxpayer with almost $700 billion worth of student loans and debt. This equates out to a potential debt burden of almost $700 for every U.S. household. Given how poorly the economy under Obama has generated good job opportunities for recent college graduates, it is very likely that a large portion of this debt burden will eventually need yet another U.S. taxpayer bailout down the road. 

First, taxpayer bailouts for the car makers, then the banks, then Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and eventually the student loan bubble burst. When politicians deal with our money and wealth, the end result is almost always a catastrophe.

3) The Independent Journal Review reported in mid November that President Obama was to play his 150th round of golf as President. Now, I am not saying the President shouldn’t get to relax and have a good time. It is just that he seems to take his rest at the most dangerous times for Americans. 

His playing golf in November was during the crisis period when Obama Care and its associated procedures and websites were totally embarrassing his administration and the country.

After warning the country about the dire happenings in Syria one Saturday a couple of months ago, how he was prepared to engage the Syrians in actual hot warfare, he and the Vice President than went off after that war address to play some golf.

When the BP oil derrick was spewing crude oil into the Gulf, causing widespread economic and environmental damage, he played golf a number of times while Gulf coast residents coped with the disaster.

Yes, he is entitled to some down time but I wish he would choose some better opportunities to do so. And, to my liberal friends and family, if you can criticize Bush for his many vacations, I and the rest of American can criticize Obama for his golf obsession and ignoring of immediate crises that affect all Americans.

4) Continuing our Hunger Games theme, that is becoming more and more real every day, where taxpayers outside of D.C. pay a higher and higher cost to make the residents within the D.C. metro area richer and more comfortable, consider a March, 2013 Washington Post article. The city of Arlington Virginia, a city tucked deeply inside the D.C. Hunger Games Metro bubble, had recently installed a bus stop.

No big deal. Every city needs lots of bus stops. However, this bus stop cost about a million dollars to build, using a lot of both Federal and state taxpayer money. Yes, $1 million for one bus stop. 

It is a nice bus stop. The bus stop’s glass-and-steel roof looks like a bird taking flight. One wall made of etched glass opens up to view newly planted landscaping. Embedded in the bus stop’s floor are heating elements intended to ward off the cold weather and keep winter-weary feet cozy. 

But. worse yet, the county has budgeted $20.8 million for the remaining 23 stops, or about $904,000 for each one. Wow, economies of scale get the cost of one bus stop down to “only” $900,000 each.

Definitely a Hunger Games situation. How many homeless people could be sheltered in Kansas City for $20.8 million? How many drug addicts in Oakland could be saved with $20.8 million worth of medicine and counseling? How many hungry Americans in Houston could be fed with $20.8 million?

In all cases, a lot. But in America today, some citizens get foot warming, million dollar bus stops and other Americans go hungry, shelterless, and drug addicted. Disgusting.

5) A lot of our material for our insanity posts could not exist without Nancy Pelosi. She is a constant source of amusing quotes (“we have to pass the health care bill to see what is in it.”) She recently had a precious quote regarding natural gas: “I believe in natural gas as a clean, cheap alternative to fossil fuels.” Uh, Nancy, natural gas is a fossil fuel. And these people vote on legislation that affects us all. Pitifully ignorant.

6) The Federal government bureaucracy has gotten so large that it often cannot control its operations or its spending. This was certainly the case as identified by a recent Inspector General’s report on improper and illegal government Medicare payments to illegal aliens, as recapped in their executive summary:

Of the PDE records submitted by sponsors for CYs 2009 through 2011, CMS inappropriately accepted 279,056 PDE records with unallowable gross drug costs totaling $28,990,718 on behalf Medicare Part D Payments for Unlawfully Present Beneficiaries.

CMS did not have a policy addressing payments for unlawfully present beneficiaries under Medicare Part D that was equivalent to the existing policy that covers payments for these beneficiaries under Parts A and B. Because CMS did not have such a policy, it did not have internal controls to identify and disenroll unlawfully present beneficiaries and to automatically reject PDE records associated with them. Without such a policy, CMS incorrectly treated unlawfully present beneficiaries as eligible for Part D benefits and did not prevent Part D payments on behalf of them. 

In a nutshell, the Federal government illegally and improperly paid out almost $29 million in Medicare drug benefits to illegal immigrants who were not supposed to receive those taxpayer funded benefits and even worse, the government, despite being in the Medicare business for decades, n did not even have methods and procedures in place to make sure this type fraud and waste did not occur. 

As with the Arlington million dollar bus shelter, how many homeless American citizens could be sheltered in Kansas City for $29 million that instead went to illegal immigrants? How many drug addicts American citizens in Oakland could be saved with $29 million worth of medicine and counseling? How many hungry American citizens in Houston could be fed with $29 million?

Taxpayer wealth being wasted on bus stops and illegal immigrants and the needs of real American citizens go unattended to. A President who golfs at the wrong times, pumps up another financial bubble via dangerously high student loan liabilities, and who does nothing to deter the Hunger Games disgrace in Washington. A Federal government which worries about a sticker on a car visor rather than real issues. A leading politician that does not know basic energy facts. 

This is the disgrace that are American politicians today. And that disgrace will continue to unfold tomorrow as we plod through this month’s political class insanity.

Our book, "Love My Country, Loathe My Government - Fifty First Steps To Restoring Our Freedom And Destroying The American Political Class" is now available at:

www.loathemygovernment.com

It is also available online at Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Please pass our message of freedom onward. Let your friends and family know about our websites and blogs, ask your library to carry the book, and respect freedom for both yourselves and others everyday.

Please visit the following sites for freedom:

Term Limits Now:http://www.howmuchworsecoulditget.com
http://www.reason.com
http://www.cato.org
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08j0sYUOb5w