Even The Washington Post Is Starting To Wonder If President Obama Is Unworthy Of A Second Term

Last week we ran a three part series on why we felt President Obama was unworthy of a second term in office. We came up with 88 reasons that covered a wide range of areas including economic failures, foreign policy failures, blaming everyone else in the word for his failures except himself, sitting silent while his Democratic Party partners slandered and demeaned Americans for simply having an honest difference of opinion with the administration's views and policies, and several other broad areas. I suggest you read the detailed three part series for the detailed reasons and the logic and data behind our conclusions.

Earlier this week, we had to publish five additional reasons why President Obama is unworthy of a second term, reasons that we missed within the listing of the original 88. Fellow citizens were quick to point out these additional reasons, which were as valid as our original 88.

Now, it seems that at least one writer for the Washington Post has independently come up with his own set of reasons why the President is unworthy of a second term. While his reasons are not as detailed or quantitative as ours, he does cover many of the same broad areas of disappointment and dismay that we have been subjected to by this Presidential administration over the past three years.

The reasons this editorial piece is so critical and surprising, is that I have found the Washington Post to generally have a small but distinct bias in their reporting and writing towards favoring the Democrats within the American political class. It is my opinion that I usually have seen their writers to take a favorable and go easy approach when reviewing the Obama administration's record.

To have one of their writers come out and accurately summarize the failures of this Presidency is frankly, quite shocking and surprising. I would have expected such a piece out of Fox News, not the Washington Post.

I have included his words and thoughts below for your review and analysis:

**********

The Washington Post



Obama: The Affirmative Action President by Matt Patterson (columnist - Washington Post, New York Post, San Francisco Examiner)

Years from now, historians may regard the 2008 election of Barack Obama as an inscrutable and disturbing phenomenon, a baffling breed of mass hysteria akin perhaps to the witch craze of the Middle Ages. How, they will wonder, did a man so devoid of professional accomplishment beguile so many into thinking he could manage the world's largest economy, direct the world's most powerful military, execute the world's most consequential job?

Imagine a future historian examining Obama's pre-presidential life: ushered into and through the Ivy League despite unremarkable grades and test scores along the way; a cushy non-job as a "community organizer"; a brief career as a state legislator devoid of legislative achievement (and in fact nearly devoid of his attention, so often did he vote "present") ; and finally an unaccomplished single term in the United States Senate, the entirety of which was devoted to his presidential ambitions. He left no academic legacy in academia, authored no signature legislation as a legislator.

And then there is the matter of his troubling associations: the white-hating, America-loathing preacher who for decades served as Obama's "spiritual mentor"; a real-life, actual terrorist who served as Obama's colleague and political sponsor. It is easy to imagine a future historian looking at it all and asking: how on Earth was such a man elected president?

Not content to wait for history, the incomparable Norman Podhoretz addressed the question recently in the Wall Street Journal:

"To be sure, no white candidate who had close associations with an outspoken hater of America like Jeremiah Wright and an unrepentant terrorist like Bill Ayers, would have lasted a single day. But because Mr. Obama was black, and therefore entitled in the eyes of liberaldom to have hung out with protesters against various American injustices, even if they were a bit extreme, he was given a pass."

Let that sink in: Obama was given a pass -- held to a lower standard -- because of the color of his skin. Podhoretz continues:

"And in any case, what did such ancient history matter when he was also so articulate and elegant and (as he himself had said) "non-threatening," all of which gave him a fighting chance to become the first black president and thereby to lay the curse of racism to rest?"

Podhoretz puts his finger, I think, on the animating pulse of the Obama phenomenon -- affirmative action. Not in the legal sense, of course. But certainly in the motivating sentiment behind all affirmative action laws and regulations, which are designed primarily to make white people, and especially white liberals, feel good about themselves.

Unfortunately, minorities often suffer so that whites can pat themselves on the back. Liberals routinely admit minorities to schools for which they are not qualified, yet take no responsibility for the inevitable poor performance and high drop-out rates which follow. Liberals don't care if these minority students fail; liberals aren't around to witness the emotional devastation and deflated self esteem resulting from the racist policy that is affirmative action. Yes, racist.

Holding someone to a separate standard merely because of the color of his skin -- that's affirmative action in a nutshell, and if that isn't racism, then nothing is. And that is what America did to Obama.

True, Obama himself was never troubled by his lack of achievements, but why would he be? As many have noted, Obama was told he was good enough for Columbia despite undistinguished grades at Occidental; he was told he was good enough for the US Senate despite a mediocre record in Illinois; he was told he was good enough to be president despite no record at all in the Senate. All his life, every step of the way, Obama was told he was good enough for the next step, in spite of ample evidence to the contrary. What could this breed if not the sort of empty narcissism on display every time Obama speaks?

In 2008, many who agreed that he lacked executive qualifications nonetheless raved about Obama's oratory skills, intellect, and cool character. Those people -- conservatives included -- ought now to be deeply embarrassed. The man thinks and speaks in the hoariest of cliches, and that's when he has his teleprompter in front of him; when the prompter is absent he can barely think or speak at all. Not one original idea has ever issued from his mouth -- it's all warmed-over Marxism of the kind that has failed over and over again for 100 years.

And what about his character? Obama is constantly blaming anything and everything else for his troubles. Bush did it; it was bad luck; I inherited this mess. It is embarrassing to see a president so willing to advertise his own powerlessness, so comfortable with his own incompetence. But really, what were we to expect? The man has never been responsible for anything, so how do we expect him to act responsibly?

In short: our president is a small and small-minded man, with neither the temperament nor the intellect to handle his job. When you understand that, and only when you understand that, will the current erosion of liberty and prosperity make sense. It could not have gone otherwise with such a man in the Oval Office.


*****
Sounds familiar. It is never his fault. No discernible accomplishments, either prior to the White House or while in the White House. Standing by when others within his domain denigrate America and those in it. Refusing to take responsibility and leadership. Instead, "so confident in his own impotence."

We called it a condescending attitude towards all who disagree with him since he seems to think he is smarter than everyone else. However, I like the use of "the sort of empty narcissism on display every time Obama speaks" as a better description of how this man approaches life.

88 reasons last week, five more reasons this week plus the above essay today. Time to look for some real change (and actual plans) this fall which can be found at www.unitedstatesofpurple.com. Check it out, no narcissism allowed.




We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.

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.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment

The Magnitude Of Our National Debt Made Real And Understandable

We have talked about our skyrocketing national debt many times in this blog. For those that may have missed some of our graphical representations of the crisis, take a look at the following graphs (all of the graphed data are from official U.S. Federal government sources):

You can double click on each graph to get a larger and better view of each graph. As you can see, no matter how you measure our national debt, in absolute dollars, in dollars as a percentage of GDP, government spending as a percentage of GDP, etc., our Federal government spending is out of control and getting worse. It has been particularly devastating and out of control ever since the Democrats took control of both houses of Congress after the midterm elections of 2006.

Another way to look at our $15 TRILLION national debt is to actually see it written out:

                         $15,000,000,000,000

That's a lot of zeros. Since it is our national debt and all Americans are going to have to pay it off at some point in the future, the personal household share of $15 TRILLION comes out to about $132,000 for each household. Think about how you are going to work that new expense into your household budget this year.

And remember, the $15 TRILLION is not a fixed amount. Under the long term, 10 year budget Obama proposed back in the spring, a budget that was unanimously rejected by the Senate, under the most optimistic assumptions Obama's proposed budget would add another $9 TRILLION on top of the $15 TRILLION.

But, we are getting crazy, the numbers are almost too large to understand. So let's make it simple. The late 2011 Federal budget disaster looked like the following:

* 2011 U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000

* 2011 Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000

* New debt in 2011: $ 1,650,000,000,000

* National debt as of late 2011: $14,271,000,000,000

* Recent budget cuts: $ 38,500,000,000

Let's now remove 8 zeros and pretend it's a reasonable but low income household budget:

* Annual family income: $21,700

* Money the family spent: $38,200

* New debt on the credit card: $16,500

* Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710

* Total budget cuts: $385

Thus, if the U.S. Federal national debt was scaled to a reasonable low income, U.S. household budget, that household would never again get any credit since no one and no company, short of a loan shark, would ever extend credit to a household in this financial situation. This household would never get a mortgage to own a house, would never get a car loan for a new car, or be able to attend a reputable college since they would not get any kind of student loan. Nice life.

Another way to view the national debt scaled down to a reasonable household level is to imagine that the household did not eat, did not drive a car, did not shop for clothes, Christmas gifts, or anything else, or pay taxes or utility bills for seven years. If it did this abstaining for seven years, then and only then would it be able to pay off its $142,710 credit card debt, given their current household income stream.

And that is assuming a credit card interest rate of 0%. Not very realistic, which makes the debt situation even more distressing since a household cannot go seven years without eating, driving, etc.

Once we scale the problem down to a household level, you can begin to imagine and comprehend the dire straits the nation's financial situation is in. In fact, it will likely take decades and generations of Americans, acting frugally, to tame the wild spending of the American political class over the past decades and especially over the past five years of Democratic Party rule.

And that assumes the current politicians we are stuck with finally grow a backbone and begin to honestly level with Americans on how bad they have made the problem and the painful steps that will have to be taken to remedy the situation. That is asking a lot and that is why we need to start implementing some steps from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government:"

Step 1 would reduce Federal government spending by 10% a year for the next five years by reducing Federal government employee headcount, stop deploying American troops all over the world for no good reasons, eliminating government agency and department redundancies, eliminating obsolete or dysfunctional government functions, reforming Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, and eliminating fraud and criminal activity in Federal Government programs..

We have talked about all of these steps in previous posts. There is no rational reason for us to still have well over 100,000 troops deployed in Europe, South Korea, and Japan. The need for these deployments went away long ago.

We need to clean up the fraud in government social programs and tax evasion which wastes up to half a TRILLION dollars a year.

We need to have our politicians do a lot of the boring, government efficiency things and not be so concerned about their own political careers and only dealing with big issues, that never get resolved anyway.

And the really scary part of this whole plan is that even if the Federal government had reduced its 2011 spending of $3.820 TRILLION by 10% a year for five years, it still would not get to a balanced budget in which expenses had been reduced enough to equal of be less than the 2011 revenue stream of $2.170 TRILLION.

It would be close, within about 4% or so, but expenses would still exceed revenue in this hypothetical case. That is how bad the deficit spending situation has become just in the two years since "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" was published. Five years of 10% reductions a year might still not be enough to get a balanced budget. And it certainly will not be enough to start paying down the $15 TRILLION national debt.

- Step 39 from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" would impose term limits on all Federal politicians, "one and done." The current set of people in Washington got us into this mess. I doubt they know how to get us out of the mess they created or even have the will to do so. We need to start generating a new class of politicians who will do the hard job of governing efficiently rather than the bad job of politicking inefficiently.


We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.






The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.



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.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/

American Economic Freedom - Slowly Ebbing Away

Every year, the Heritage Foundation, in conjunction with the Wall Street Journal, conducts a very, very extensive analysis of economic freedom around the world along ten different factors of measurement. The analysis is country specific and factor specific within each country. All of their analyses result in a rank ordering of many countries via what they call the Index Of Economic Freedom. The higher the index, the more economic freedom exists within that nation, as measured by the ten factors.

The ten factors include the following measurements and results:

• Under Rule of Law, there are the two factors, Property Rights and Freedom From Corruption.
• Under Regulatory Efficiency, there are three factors, Business Freedom, Labor Freedom, and Monetary Freedom.
• Under Limited Government, there are two factors, Government Spending and Fiscal Freedom.
• Under Open Markets, there are three factors, Trade Freedom, Investment Freedom, and Financial Freedom.

The detailed findings for their 2012 report can be accessed and the the data reviewed at http://www.heritage.org/index/. You will see that they are comprehensive, thorough, and quantitatively impressive in their detailed work and analyses.

Their final output for each country consists of index calculations for each of the ten factors along with an overall index that statistically and soundly combines the nation's ten individual indices into one total national index measure. They also determine where each measure falls along a separate measure of freedom that contains five levels, ranging from Free to Moderately Free down to Repressive.

Why is this study important? The analysts who put this annual study together have found that if you graph a nation's per capita wealth on the vertical axis of a graph vs. a nation's Index of Economic Freedom on the horizontal axis, you find that there is an almost 70% positive correlation between citizens' wealth and economic freedom within the country, i.e. richer countries with richer citizens tend to also have higher Indices Economic Freedom.

Obviously, correlation does not necessarily mean causation. However, there probably is a strong causation link between free people operating in free markets, an environment that tends to optimize economic behavior and activity vs. unfree citizens living under repressive regimes where much economic decisions and activity are tightly controlled by either incompetent tyrants or bureaucrats. If you look at their findings year in and year out, you will probably not find a highly efficient, free, and productive economy that is also run by a repressive government.

In the 2012 report, there is bad news for the United States in several areas. First, why we may think of ourselves living in the freest country in the world, according to this analysis approach, that is a false assumption. Our Index of Economic Freedom has never been ranked number one and unfortunately, it has been slipping on a year over year basis for several years now. The following graph lays out what our total Index Of Economic Freedom has been over time (in this graph, the smaller the number the higher/better the ranking of the U.S. relative to other countries):

You can double click on the graph to get a better, larger view. The vertical line between 2006 and 2007 represents the 2006 midterm elections where the Democrats took over control of both parts of Congress.

What conclusions can we draw from these historical results:

1. Our economic freedom generally improved during the Bush administration, getting down to being fifth ranked for a couple of years vs. being generally in the seventh to eighth position during the Clinton years.
2. Our ranking has mostly gotten worse since the Democrats took over Congress in late 2006.
3. The last three years illustrate a disturbing trend with our Index Of Economic Freedom overall index steadily trending negatively since 2008's report.
4. In fact, our Index of Economic Freedom has never been worse, as measured by our ninth place rating in the 2011 report and our tenth place rating in the 2012 report.
5. Furthermore, for the first time ever, an African country actually has a higher Index of Economic Freedom ranking higher than ours.

Not a good overall trend. Again, correlation does not necessarily mean causation. But given that the past three years have shown a deteriorating Index of Economic Freedom ranking performance at the same time that U.S. unemployment remains stubbornly high, household average incomes have fallen steadily over the past few years, and economic growth is weak vs. historical performance, it does appear there is some substantial causation at work.

Thus, not only is our overall economic freedom definitely getting worse, and possibly impacting the negative economic world we live in today in this country, some of the ten underlying economic freedom factors are not that great either and are also trending negatively. For the U.S., our ten underlying factors look like the following in the 2012 report:

• Business Freedom - Steady results, above the world average, and in the "Free" category. (Note- the "Free" category is the best category you can fall into)
• Trade Freedom - Steady results, above the world average, and in the "Free" category.
• Labor Freedom - Steady results, above the world average, and in the "Free" category.

Not bad. However, things do not look as rosy for the U.S. in the remaining seven categories:

• Fiscal Freedom - Steady results, below the world average, and in the "Mostly Free" category. (Note - the "Mostly Free" category is a step down in freedom from the "Free" category)
• Monetary Freedom - Worsening results, about at the world average, and in the "Mostly Free" category.
• Investment Freedom - Worsening results, above the world average, and in the "Mostly Free" category.
• Financial Freedom - Worsening results, above the world average, and in the "Mostly Free" category.
• Property Rights - Worsening results, above the world average, and in the "Moderately Free" category. (Note - the "Moderately Free is a negative step down from "Mostly Free")

Not good. We are either below or only at the world average, results are trending negatively, or we have dropped out of the top freedom category already in these important category/factors of freedom.

But we are in very horrible shape in the remaining two categories:

• Freedom From Corruption - Worsening quickly, above the world average, and only "Moderately Free."
• Government Spending - Worsening quickly, below the world average, and already in the Repressive category (Note - the "Repressive" category is the worst freedom category a nation can fall into relative to economic freedom)

Really, really not good. Our performances in these two categories are almost in free fall and who would have ever thought that someone could analytically and accurately describe any facet of the United States government and democracy being in the "Repressive" state?

In the Freedom From Corruption factor, in only ten years our nation's situation has dropped over 13%, taking us from the Free to the Mostly Free category. If you look at the detailed national ratings, there are twenty one nations that outperform us from a Freedom From Corruption perspective. The going forward concern is that the trend is not good, in a few years we could easily fall further down the freedom scale and trail more countries who have less government corruption than us.

Here is what the report says about U.S. corruption: "Corruption is a growing concern as the cronyism and economic rent-seeking associated with the growth of government have undermined institutional integrity." Given the high level of annual wasteful Federal government earmarks and the growing government cronyism under the Obama administration (e.g. Solyndra, Beacon, Fisker, Tesla, General Electric, etc.), it is not surprising that we should now be embarrassed by our Federal political class. Now the whole world knows how bad we are.

Where we are really bad is in the area of Government Spending. We are officially in the "Repressive" area of the freedom scale, a very dangerous area. We are so bad as a nation that there are many more countries in the study who are in better shape than us.

At least six Third World countries (Turkmenistan, Uganda, Madagascar, Guatemala, Burma, and Bangladesh) are not only in better shape than the U.S. but their index scores are DOUBLE what our score is. The top two overall countries in the study, Hong Kong and Singapore, have overall index scores that are also double our nation's score in this area. Pathetic performance no matter how you look at it.

Remember what we have stressed many times in this blog: you cannot have political freedom and freedom of choice without economic freedom. If your economic freedom gets worse, than you have less freedom of choice to send your kids to the best schools, less freedom of choice to live in the type of house and neighborhood you would prefer to live in, less freedom of choice to contribute to the charities of your choice, etc. This is why economic freedom is so important.

This study should be viewed as a leading indicator of where we are going from both a democracy and an economic perspective. Our political class through the decades, both Republicans and Democrats, have allowed both to deteriorate to such an extent that we now have a substantial and growing government corruption problem and our government spending situation is so bad that it is orders of magnitude worse than such economic powerhouses as Burma and Bangladesh. 

Now is it any surprise that our economic growth is horrible, our unemployment and underemployment rates are stubbornly high, we are susceptible to economic problems elsewhere in he world, consumer confidence in our nation's future and our leaders are at all time lows, and our political class have no intention, will, or ability to resolve our nation's issues?

That is why two steps from "Love My Country, Loathe My Government" are critical to fix what ails our country, if the results from this study are to be believed:

- Step 1 - this step would reduce Federal government spending by 10% a year for five years if we are to have any chance of getting our Federal government spending under control and start to reduce our onerous national debt. Many times we have shown how to reduce government spending by TRILLIONS of dollars, based on the work of many fine American organizations, including Obama's own deficit reduction commission. To say Step 1 cannot be done is a reflection on the incompetence of our politicians, not the reality that we have described for finding the solution.

- Step 39 - this step would impose firm term limits on all current and future Federal politicians. It is obvious from this study that we can no longer afford to allow the current set of politicians to continue in power. Their results are putrid and corrupt, the direction they have set the country on is disastrous.

Prior to implementing Step 39, we can begin the purging process by voting out all incumbents in the November elections. This includes President Obama and every single member of Congress and the House of Representatives who are up for reelection. Not a single one of them have come up with a plan, particularly President Obama, to address our rotting Index Of Economic Freedom. They do not deserve the privilege of serving the nation.


We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, "The United States Of Purple," at:

http://www.unitedstatesofpurple.com/.

The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills and results vs. personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just one United States Of America under the banner of Purple.

The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.

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.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/

Five More Reasons Why President Obama Is Unworthy Of A Second Term

A little while ago we put together the 88 top reasons why President Obama was not worthy of a second term as President of The United States. These reasons included the many times President Obama remained silent while his political allies demeaned and slandered ordinary Americans for simply having an honest difference of opinion, his many failed economic problems, his failed foreign relations programs, etc.

However, it appears that the list of 88 was not all inclusive, as we have been reminded from readers and as we find out from these additional reasons why he should not be reelected:

- When interviewed about immigration reform on a Latino radio station just prior to the 2010 midterm elections, President Obama stated:

"We’re going to punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends who stand with us on issues that are important to us."

So, in the world of Obama, those Americans that have a difference of opinion are "enemies." They are not citizens exercising their freedom of choice, they are the "enemy." They are not citizens expressing a different and honest opinion, they are the "enemy." So much for this President's promise prior to his election to be a uniter of the country. He would rather divide us along the lines of enemy vs. friend.

- News reports from early in the week of January 9, 2012 reported that the Department of Homeland Security now has Federal government permission to collect and keep on file personal information on "journalists, news anchors, reporters or anyone who uses traditional and/or social media in real time to keep their audience situationally aware and informed."

In other words, the Federal government, through its agents within the Department of Homeland Security, is now going to be tracking what Americans and what American journalists are broadcasting, blogging, Facebooking, and tweeting about. It is assumed in the news reports that this broadening of unfettered government power includes both famous TV newscasters down to independent bloggers who blog their views on the Internet.

Previously, employees of Homeland Security had to do some serious homework and paperwork to get permission before they could start collecting personal information on anyone, an American citizen or not. However, now according to new Department Of  Homeland Security guidelines, it is now much easier to start collecting and tracking personal information and the reports and opinions they express. RT.com summarized the recent changes, quite nicely:

"Previously established guidelines within the administration say that data could only be collected under authorization set forth by written code, but the new provisions in the NOC’s write-up means that any reporter, whether someone along the lines of Walter Cronkite or a budding blogger, can be victimized by the agency."

Since the freedom of press is a major, major tenet under which we maintain our democracy and the freedom of speech that comes with that democracy, the Obama administration's initiative to start tracking what we say about our country and our political class and how and where we say it is a very chilling development relative to our liberties.

When a Presidential administration evokes images of George Orwell's "1984" more than it evokes images of liberty, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights, it is time for that administration to end.

- Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz is the chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee. Last week she joined the club of fellow Democrats who have slandered and demeaned Americans who are concerned about the loss of freedom in this country and the impending, political class fiscal disaster that they are driving the country towards.

Namely, she took an unprovoked and unwarranted pot shot at members of the Tea Party, concluding that the Tea Party was responsible for the horrible shootings in Tucson, Arizona in early 2011 that severely wounded a Congresswoman and others and killed several others.

Her exact words are as follows:

"I'll tell you. I hesitate to place blame, but I have noticed it take a very precipitous turn towards edginess and lack of civility with the growth of the Tea Party movement."


There are three things despicably wrong with this statement:

• First, not a year ago and not now has there ever been any concrete, direct, or indirect connection between the shooter and the Tea Party. The shooter was a nut case with a gun, he had no association with any facet of the Tea Party movement. To imply he did is a total falsehood and slanderous accusation.
• Maybe Ms. Wasserman Schultz should take a look at those that support her political party, namely the labor unions when it comes to lack of civility (or outright violence incitement). She should especially consider the words of union leader James Hoffa when he said that his followers were ready to go to "war" with Republicans and Tea Party members, all of whom "need to be taken out." This type of "lack of civility" is a given fact, true quotes from Hoffa himself as opposed to fantasy connections between the Tuscon shooter and the Tea party.
• And finally, as always, the President comes up very small in this situation, allowing another of his political allies to demean and debase ordinary Americans for taking an interest in their democracy and caring about what happens to the country no matter how untrue and outrageous the false accusations are.

But this is not a surprise. When other political allies of this President called ordinary, caring Americans barbarians, terrorists, a__h___s, Neanderthals, etc., he was silent and complicit in their slurs. Disgraceful leadership behavior.

- Last week, the Today Show on NBC celebrated its 60th anniversary of being on television. Something certainly to be proud of to have such a long run when most television shows of all types are lucky to be around for a few years at most.

However, in the big scheme of things, the major issues facing this country, it is a nit. High unemployment, foreign affair issues with Iran, failing public schools, a lost war on drugs, a severely flawed health care reform law, high energy costs, etc. are much more worthy of limited Presidential focus than the anniversary of a TV show, at least in my opinion.

However, our President seems to have a different view, having taken time out of his schedule to appear with his wife on this anniversary broadcast.  A continued set of bad priorities. The whole country is suffering and this President thinks doing a photo op on the Today Show is a worthwhile use of his time.

Just like he thought appearing on The View, appearing on various late night talk shows, filming a TV advertisement for the George Lopez TV show, appearing on Oprah, appearing on MTV, etc. is being Presidential. As stated previously, this President is more concerned with the pomp of the Presidency than the work of the Presidency.

- An Associated Press article from December 31, 2011 reported that President Obama has basically decided to tell Congress to go pound sand in 2012 and that he will ignore dealing with them and try to rule by fiat, also known as executive order:

"Now that he's sort of free from having to put out these fires, the president will have a larger playing field. If that includes Congress, all the better," said Josh Earnest, White House deputy press secretary. But, he added, "that's no longer a requirement."


"If that includes Congress, all the better." What an obnoxious position to take as the President of the United States. According to the governing rules of the land, the President is required to deal with Congress, it is a part of the Constitution that the President cannot unilaterally ignore. That is how we operate our democracy.

But we all know why he is doing this. It is purely for his personal, selfish political purposes. As laid out in the article, he is willing to forego making any progress on the issues facing the country in order to paint Congress, both Republicans and Democrats, as the reason why his administration has been such a failure. He is back to his old "blame game," they (Congress) are the deadbeats, the obstructionists, the do-nothing people.

Blame and divide. Two of the negative hallmarks of this Presidency, hallmark characteristics that have gotten us deeper and deeper into the mess we are in now as a nation. Better to sacrifice a year of deteriorating issues than to risk not getting reelected, hardly a leadership attitude.

I believe that this is a President with such a large ego that he finds it personally impossible to compromise or to seriously consider the opinions and views of others since he considers himself smarter than the rest of us. He does not have the patience to lead since how could anyone do better or be smarter than him.

As a result, we are stuck with an ego driven President who blames others, has no patience for others, is condescending to others, and is willing to sacrifice and subordinate the Constitution and the good of the country to the political fulfillment of his reelection. Hardly a leader, hardly worth of another term in office.


We invite all readers of this blog to visit our new website, The United States Of Purple, at www.unitedstatesofpurple.com. The United States of Purple is a new grass roots approach to filling the office of President of The United States by focusing on the restoration of freedom in the United States, focusing on problem solving skills vs.personal political enrichment, and imposing term limits on all future Federal politicians. No more red states, no more blue states, just the United States of Purple.



The United States Of Purple's website also provides you the formal opportunity to sign a petition to begin the process of implementing a Constitutional amendment to impose fixed term limits on all Federally elected politicians. Only by turning out the existing political class can we have a chance of addressing and finally resolving the major issues of or times.



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.cato.org/
http://www.robertringer.com/
http://realpolichick.blogspot.com/
http://www.flipcongress2010.com/
http://www.reason.com/
http://www.repealamendment/