The disaster continues

I have tried to look positively on the Obama Administration and often stop myself and say to myself things like, "Well, it probably won't be as bad as I think it'll be." However, no matter how I look at it, on every level, I just see idiotic and downright socialist behavior by the prez and his minions (who ought to know better). Are the harkening back to some bygone Rooseveltian era where big government was able to do basically socialized things (to ultimately questionable success) and it turned out OK?

Anyway you slice, Obama's performance so far gets an F.

GM -- unions get preference, creditors - those who basically lent to company cash, get hosed. F

Healthcare - OK, who's going to pay for this? Those making "too much money," apparently. But where does "too much money end"? Everyone will be paying soon, now or later, us or our children and their children's children. Furthermore, going to a single payer system will put other healthcare companies out of business, ie, more jobs down the drain.

Also, what's the difference between lying to get us into Iraq (if that's your belief) and lying in order to spend unheard of amounts of money on an issue that had nothing to do with the current crisis. By saying, "We need to fix healthcare or we'll be in the same place we are now in a few years." What does that mean and how are the two related? Yes, people are going bankrupt by their medical costs, but why doesn't the government take care of that end of it? The catastrophic illness, etc?

At this point and up to this point, I haven't visited doctors much. I don't begrudge people who do. But perhaps if any one of us knew what treatments really cost, and we were responsible for how our medical savings gets spent, we might be a little more circumspect about going to the doc every 15 minutes. Cover people for catastrophic accidents, illness, etc. But don't try to cover everyone. Our behavior, naturally human, will overload the system. It's what we do.

Anyway, F.

Compensation Czar -- this is by far one of the worst things I have ever heard of. Don't these people have any sense of history? Or any sense of what might happen in the future? 1. you can't tell people how much they're worth in the market.

Prosecuting past administration. Ah hell, F, F and F. What is the point of such an exercise? Moralizing about America's morals is dumb and short-sighted. Sure, bad things happened during the Bush years. But they happened in every other presidency. Again, we're America. We screw things up often, but more often than not we get it right. The larger point here is why put the country through something that is so clearly unclear? F, did I say that already?!

Stimulus - F. That thing was so loaded with pork, it's still flopping around at the gate. Something like single-digit percent has left the Beltway to make its way to shovel ready projects. But really the only thing shovel ready is the mountain of bullshit piling up.

The mountatin went to Mohammed

OK, in a previous post headlined Cringing Toward Cairo, I speculated that Obama would continue the cringe-worthy Apology Tour he launched with his trip to Europe earlier this year (or if I didn't that's what I meant!).

I have to say, the speech wasn't bad, in fact it was OK in terms of not bashing America as he often does. He certainly said, "on the other hand" a lot (what we need is a one-armed president!). For the most part, it hit many of the marks one would have expected: Palistinian-Israeli conflict, Iran, terror, women, etc. One big problem was equating the Holocaust to Palistinian suffering...um...I don't think so.

Anyway, actions speak louder than words, so it will be interesting to see what actions MUSLIMS take to help out (I mean, if you're a lefty, hasn't the US done enough damage?!). But by what I've read, there ain't too much love forthcoming from the region. As usual, Islam and the "Arab Street" have taken a "what have you done for me lately?" attitude following the speech, along with "OK, we'll see -- but don't get comfortable!" So, still expecting the mountain to continue to come to the Mohammeds, they looked upon Obama's speech with respect tinged with skepticism. As usual, they want more. Give me, get me, buy me.

Even after 30 odd years of trying to kill Westerners, most particularly Americans, they have the cahones to still demand WE do something about their problems (that actually only they can solve).

Frankly as I wrote a couple days ago, I felt that this was a futile attempt on Obama's part. Arabs want it all and they want to save face and they want victory. So like little children, they have to be coddled and given more candy (trust me, I'm half Arab, I know from being childish, etc).

I have an idea: How about a Muslim of importance come to the US and give a similar speech?

Now that we're in power, shut up

I don't often read the NYTimes anymore but on occasion will wander over to its web site for a little glimpse at "how the other half lives," so to speak.

For instance, I'll read the Times' token conservative, David Brooks, and then read some of the comments below the column. More often than not they're a bit critical, usually ending with a shot at Republicans in general; you know, the type of barb that the writer thinks is an Onion-worthy volley. Sometimes they're a little or a lot mean, etc.

But the theme of 99% of posts is this: "We Democrats stood by in quiet desperation when George Bush raped and pillaged our fine country, now it's time for Republicans to shut up!" As if all the winging we heard over the past eight years, starting with "Bush v. Gore, 'nuf said," sprinkled with "Bush is Nazi" and ending with his basic description as the anti-christ, along with a host of other invective, doesn't count.

So add this hypocracy to the Democrat world view:

1. George W. Bush was the first president of the US and ruined EVERYTHING; Obama is the second (coming) POTUS and will fix EVERYTHING

2. We stood on the sidelines quietly supporting GWB and he screwed up EVERYTHING, now it's Republicans' turn to quietly support BHO or else EVERYTHING will get screwed up again.

It is amazing. The whole Sotomayor nomination is another good example of the "now it's time for Republicans to shut up." She clearly said something that was fairly racist if not sexist. But any criticism of her as being racist suddenly makes those critics "crazies foaming at the mouth," etc.

Anyway, these are the thoughts of a wise Lebo-Irisha man, who, with the richness of his experience can understand things better than a Latina woman of that life.

Cringing toward Cairo

My headline is a bit of misnomer. Obama isn't really cringing toward Cairo, where he'll give a "we are the world" speech to Muslims.

No, Obama's probably heading there, trailing clouds of glory, powered by the fuel of of self-admiration and self-satisfaction and on the airy wings of sycophantic blessings. He is of the moment, waxing in popularity, and ready to lay down new tracks to world peace and satisfaction.

So it is I who is cringing. Because like previous overseas trips, Obama will likely go with apologies galore, blame his home for something and otherwise speak for me when I don't want him to.

It says a lot that for the past 30 years, Muslim terrorists have been bombing, shooting, kidnapping, and beheading Americans and otherwise harassing the west; making utter hashes of their countries via dictatorships; AND most offensively, subjugating the women of their populations, hobbling them with burkhas and archaic rules.

But now it is we who must go extend an olive branch. It's just crazy.

This from the WSJ just says it all:

"We don't need pretty words. We need actions to satisfy ... [those Arabs] looking for transparency, human rights and justice," --Ali Al Ahmed, a Saudi human rights activist and director of the Institute of Gulf Affairs in Washington.

Here's "the thing" and there's always "the thing." Arabs, Muslims in particular, have a stong stubborn gene. Basically, they want to win. They're not humble like the Japanese. They want to be on top, if they are not, they want to ruin or otherwise disrupt everything until they are on top -- Palestinian-Israeli conflict, anyone?

On the positive side, this is a persistant attitude. On the negative, it's pathological. This is not helped by most Arabs adhering to a religion that fuels this "my way or the highway" feeling.

I'm just sayin'.