Sunday, May 17, 2009

A Belated First 100 Days of Obama Analysis

OK, since technically President Obama's first 100 days was up at approximately the end of April, here is my belated analysis of the first 100 days under President Obama.

1.) I believe his 787 billion dollar "stimulus" bill (which will actually cost at least 1.3 trillion dollars when interest is added, and that assumes interest rates stay at the historic lows they are now, which is impossible) is a fraud and a disaster in the making. First, very little of the spending goes into effect until 2010 or after, which is a handy coincidence when you remember that President Obama isn't up for re-election until 2012. Second, absolutely no one read this monstrosity of a bill before signing it into law...but if they had, they would have found things like $ 500,000.00 for a dog park in California that would allegedly create five jobs. I could do it for less than ten grand, just give me some grass, some fencing, and some land to put it on. Third, the bill is intended to add this amount of spending to the budget baseline to wildly increase government spending, while also having a side benefit of joining the likely unconstitutional TARP program as little more than a giant slush fund/reward system for President Obama's political supporters.

2.) As an attorney and as an American, I think it is absolutely frightening what is happening with the auto industry right now, specifically Chrysler and almost certainly General Motors. It started with President Obama forcing out/firing the CEO of GM. Seriously, is this America, or Venezuela? At least in third world dictatorships, the state usually nationalizes successful private industries, THEN runs them into the ground. Instead, President Obama is effectively nationalizing two unsuccessful auto companies that were crippled by terrible union contracts and generally poor vehicle quality, and then killed by a bad economic slowdown. In so doing, he is putting the taxpayers on the hook for billions and billions of dollars when the better course of action would be to allow both companies to go into bankruptcy. And speaking of bankruptcy, Chrysler is already in bankruptcy, which should be good news, but it isn't, because President Obama and his merry band of Chicago thugs are threatening secured creditors who refuse to accept pennies on the dollar as compare to his union supporters. Worse still, it appears that the bankruptcy judge, who should know better, has a sworn duty to uphold bankruptcy laws, and who has lifetime tenure to insulate him from the political pressure being brought to bear by President Obama, is going to go along with this blatantly illegal and unconstitutional end run around our bankruptcy laws. If this happens, car companies in the future with any union presence whatsoever will be virtually unable to raise capital because investors will look at the Chrysler bankruptcy and realize that even the laws in place to protect them will not guarantee that they get any return on their investment if the auto maker fails.

3.) For an absolutely outstanding tongue-in-cheek smackdown of President Obama by Victor Davis Hanson, read here, and remember that President Obama was supposedly the sophisticated, smart candidate in this election. My favorite line: "Since when do you fly in your favorite pizza-maker from across the country on our dime? Or send the presidential 747 for a spin over the Big Apple for a third-of-a-million-dollar joyride?" Then, for an extremely sobering look at where we are headed if someone doesn't stop President Obama and the Dem-cong in Congress, read this article by Victor Davis Hanson. The absolute scariest part? The stagflation of the Carter administration may be an overly optimistic economic prediction if the current orgy of deficit spending isn't brought to a screeching halt.

We are seriously in uncharted territory here people, scary times. I could close with some dire prediction(s), but why don't I just let you read for yourself the impact of President Obama's policies on the evil, dastardly "rich" people on whom he has declared war, all the while forgetting that people who have money and own businesses create jobs and generate all the tax money he is so quick to waste. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Cory Miller, a business man and driller/entrepreneur from Texas. Cory, God Bless you, I pray that you don't get the Joe the Plumber treatment from the Obama-mania media and their allies, and I couldn't have said it better myself.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Credit Where It's Due, Even to Barack Obama

OK, so it's completely obvious to anyone who knows me and/or reads this blog that I did not vote for Barack Obama and pray every day that he gets voted out in 2012, that I think he has already established himself in the first year of his first term as one of the worst presidents in history, and that most of the things he believes and is trying to accomplish may very well turn America into a failed European style nation and bankrupt the United States.

With all that said, I am with Drew from Ace of Spades on this one. Back in April, in a craven attempt to pander to the ACLU and appease the left wing of his party, President Obama agreed to release about four dozen pictures purportedly showing detainees being abused by U.S. Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. He was widely criticized for this decision not only for its obvious political nature at the expense of national security, but because he didn't issue an executive order or appeal the judge's ruling in the ACLU's lawsuit all the way to the Supreme Court. Today, after speaking with military officials, President Obama changed his mind and ordered the Department of Justice to fight the release of these photographs because their release could damage America's image around the world and endanger American troops.

Although I believe there may be an ulterior motive here (i.e., wanting to get the photo controversy out of the news in order so that people will tune out and not pay attention to his domestic agenda which is on course to destroy capitalism and America's economy as we know it), I believe President Obama is making the right call here. It is highly likely that the troops who committed the abuses have already been disciplined or prosecuted, and with the looming problems of an unstable Pakistan and an almost-nuclear Iran, the damage done by the release of these photos would far outweigh any political benefit the president hoped to gain by releasing the pictures. All the reasons for the president's change of mind may never be known, but I am glad to see he is capable of making a decision that puts our nation's security interest ahead of his personal political ambitions.

On another front, President Obama is asking Congress to send him a bill reining in some of the worst abuses by credit card companies by Memorial Day. I think the general principles actually sound pretty good, especially egregious situations, like someone who has a great payment history but is late one time getting his interest rate raised to 30% and slapped with hundreds of dollars in fees. My hope is that a good bill emerges which cracks down on consumer abuses while not crippling the credit industry. See I can say good things about President Barack Obama, and twice in one day no less! Of course, just like Noel at Cold Fury says, all statements from Obama come with an expiration date, and everyone close to him is subject to being thrown under the bus if they make him look bad, so if Obama ultimately reverses himself on the photos discussed above for some political reason(s), then forget all the nice things I just said...but FOR NOW, good job Mr. President.