Thursday, February 05, 2009

Obama's Do Or Die Ultimatum And Other Disturbing Developments

"This recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse." That's what President Barack Obama wrote in an op-ed piece published in the Washington Post if Congress did not pass his massive stimulus legislation. I can't recall in my lifetime a president making such a dire do or die pronouncement if his economic plan was not put into law. It is true that this recession is a major challenge for Americans, but so were the deep recessions in 1973-74 and 1981-82. The difference this time is that excesses are what has gotten us in this awful predicament. Given the staggering size of our national debt, a plan that adds more than $1 trillion in new debt could hardly be offered as our only way out of this mess. Massive government spending didn't get us out of the Great Depression or any other economic downturn. Natural market forces, aided by tax cuts, have had far greater economic benefit than old-fashioned, make-work government spending.

With his party in total control of our federal government, such talk from President Obama should have us all sitting up and taking notice. This is a man who has zero experience running any organization, let alone the most powerful country in the world. The stumbling start of an administration populated by certified Chicago political hacks guided and headed by the untested young leader with a messianic complex is less than comforting. Indicative of the mindset in the White House was today's announcement that census officials will report directly to the White House rather than the Commerce Secretary after partisan Democrats expressed reservations about a Republican, Judd Gregg, being in charge of the department. In one fell swoop, this action wiped out the totality of bipartisan spirit the appointment of Gregg was supposed to engender. Can you imagine the reaction from Democrats if a Republican president announced the White House would take personal charge of the census? Shouldn't we be concerned about the mischief Rahm Emanuel could create being in charged of deciding how many congressional seats will be allocated to each state after the new census?

In his first week on the job, he took to the foreign airwaves in the Muslim world for his first interview and essentially apologized for how our country is to blame for Muslim grievances with the U.S. In the interview, he embraced his family's Muslim heritage from which he spent the entire campaign last year running. Last week, President Obama signed an executive order to provide more than $20 million in emergency refugee assistance to Palestinians living in Gaza, paving the way for an influx of immigrants from this region into the United States. Talk to anyone who has visited France in the last couple of years and find out how the natives feel about all the rioting and social upheaval brought about by an immigrant population which refuses to accept the ways of a western culture and detests our democratic, civil law systems.

When President Bush expanded funding for faith-based programs, the Left was all aflutter about the use of taxpayer money to fund conservative-leaning Christian groups. Those same liberals were noticeably silent when President Obama announced he was going to spend even more than Bush on faith-based programs and the money will be shared with Islamic mosques and charities, even as our own FBI has cut off relations with the Council on American-Islamic Relations because of its suspected terrorist ties after giving the group the benefit of the doubt for the past several years. CAIR patted the President on the back for using the Koran during his recent prayer breakfast speech:

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) today welcomed President Barack Obama's use of a quote from Islam's Prophet Muhammad in his remarks at Thursday's National Prayer Breakfast.

In his prepared remarks, President Obama quoted the prophetic tradition, or "hadith," which states: "None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself." That hadith may be found in Sahih Al-Bukhari, one of the most respected collections of the Prophet Muhammad's statements and actions.

On top of that, Obama disappointed families of the U.S. servicemen victims of the terrorist attack on the U.S.S. Cole when he announced the government would drop charges against terrorist suspect Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. The judge supervising al-Nashiri's trial called Obama's efforts to disrupt his criminal prosecution "not reasonable" and not "in the interests of justice." The former commander of the U.S.S. Cole was more direct in his reaction. "I am concerned about the President considering dropping the charges because it may be indicative that the president does not intend to follow the military commissions process which has undergone extensive legal and legislative review," said retired Commander Kirk Lippold. ABC News' Jake Tapper notes that Obama pretty much tied his own hands with the handling of al-Nashiri when he signed an executive order halting all proceedings in U.S. Military Commissions.

If you aren't concerned yet about Obama's leadership, you had better perk up soon. There is way too much at stake here to sit back and let this man have his way. He will have his way with the Democratic-controlled Congress only so long as he has the popular support of the American people. With fewer than three weeks under his belt, cracks in that support are already visible. And this isn't about hoping for Obama to fail. It's about hoping for what is best for America. Right now, I'm not convinced that what Obama wants for America is at all good for the future of our country.

UPDATE: No sooner had I published this post than President Obama began what I can only describe as a highly partisan, hard-hitting attack against the GOP for opposing his trillion-dollar stimulus plan in a speech he is delivering at a posh resort where Democratic members of Congress are holding a retreat. Obama began by thanking the Democrats for giving him an excuse to take his first trip on Air Force One. When your first trip outside of D.C. is for a strictly partisan, political purpose, you aren't exactly giving the GOP a reason to give you the bipartisan support you desire.

4 comments:

Downtown Indy said...

Obama will only hasten his own downfall with his apparent lust for micromanaging.

straight up said...

Ironic, is it not?-that our new President is using the same fear tactics that he and his party derided the previous administration in regard to the War on Terror...which yes, does exist and no doubt is comforted by the apologist mode to the muslim world.

But hey, Obama is a creature of the media, spawned by it. It shall be interesting how they respond when he REALLY screws up, poor, ill thought-out cabinet choices notwithstanding.

IndyPaul said...

Gee, Gary, your site seems to be largely revisionist propoganda.

"I can't recall in my lifetime a president making such a dire do or die pronouncement if his economic plan was not put into law."

Well, how about a president making a dire or die pronouncement if his foreign policy wasn't enacted? Like talk of being nuked and other WMD that didn't exist?? Is that recent enough to jog your memory? How about a former and disgraced Vice-president warning of hundreds of thousans of deaths if the newly inagaurated president enacts policies upon which he campaigned and was elected by a healthy majority of Americans??? Recent enough??

"Massive government spending didn't get us out of the Great Depression or any other economic downturn."

No? What do you call WWII if not massive government spending? The biggest setback to recovery from the Great Depression came in 1937, following an atempt to balance the budget and reduce spending.

"Natural market forces, aided by tax cuts . . . "

Where have you been the last six months?

"With his party in total control of our federal government . . ."

Bush had this, and ran our economy and foreign policy into the ground. The concern should be that his party continues to trumpet the failed policies of the past 8 years, as if their failures had never even occurred.

'this action wiped out the totality of bipartisan spirit the appointment of Gregg was supposed to engender.'

Tell me the last time there was such a politically diverse administration. The last one repeatedly and consistently cut many cabinet members and respected congressional leaders of ITS OWN PARTY out of major decisions in their respective fields of expertise. This one brings several of the opposing party into its cabinet, but 'bipartisan spirit' is somehow 'wiped out'?? Partisans like you would not accept any cross-aisle cooperation short of a complete reversal of the the will of the American people as forcefully expressed in the last election. Comments such as this one are complete blather.

". . . emergency refugee assistance to Palestinians living in Gaza, paving the way for an influx of immigrants from this region into the United States."

Is there any support whatsoever for this rhetorical jump from refugee assistance to immigration to the US? So the US should stand by in the face of refugee catastrophe, due to unsupported fear of its effect on immigration to the US??

Your contorted views regading faith based programs, pointed out by previous posters here, are becoming even more twisted. So now they are ok unless they include such programs run by Muslims??

"...president does not intend to follow the military commissions process which has undergone extensive legal and legislative review"

Like two Supreme Court decisions striking down the commission process as unconstitutional??? The Cole case is frozen, and will be reinstated in a constitutional process.

"When your first trip outside of D.C. is for a strictly partisan, political purpose, you aren't exactly giving the GOP a reason to give you the bipartisan support you desire."

I imagine the bulk of Bush's visits outside DC were for such purposes. The Rove inspired 'fly-by' of New Orleans come to mind. If the 2008 election and Obama's inclusion of Republicans in his administration is not enough reason for ostructionist GOP lawmakers, self-preservation ought to be.

Gary R. Welsh said...

We see what we want to see, Paul. I don't support spending money on faith-based groups regardless of their religious affiliation. I thought you liberals supported the separation of church and state, oh that's right, only when it's a Republican in charge of the program do you oppose it. You always have to drag out the old Iraq argument and something Dick Cheney said on the way out of office. The context of my comment on dire predictions related to a president's economic policy, not fighting wars. It's easy to bash the hell out of Bush for how he prosecuted terrorists, but let's just see how well Barry fares on this score. Chicago police have been torturing citizen suspects for decades and not a one of you liberal Democrats stand up and fight that system because the Democrats run the city. But let anything Bush tried to do to bring terrorists to justice and you were right there biting his ass every step of the way to thwart his efforts in order to protect the rights of foreign combatants enemies.