Obama's Groundhog Day Speech
Two more years of economic winter.
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Yesterday, in keeping with hundreds of years of tradition, Punxsutawney Phil the Groundhog Day groundhog emerged from his burrow as he does each year. To celebratory applause and rapt attention of all the local dignitaries, Phil cast his beady eyes around the assembly in search of his shadow. Lo and behold, no shadow - thus we are preserved from six more weeks of winter, not withstanding the current monster storm engulfing 30 states. Perhaps Phil has unwisely been listening to Al Gore?
Last week, President Barack Hussein Obama Jr. emerged from the White House as prescribed by Constitution and tradition, to tell us his plans for the economy.
Much like the groundhog's, Obama's appearance this year was eagerly anticipated and carried a great deal of uncertainty. Was he preparing to turn over a new leaf - to acknowledge the demands of an angry America for urgently-needed change?
We've had a long, long two years of a never-ending array of new and intrusive regulations, corrupt officials, government takeovers of entire sections of the economy, and ongoing desecration of traditional American freedoms and liberties. This was billed as necessary to save the economy; in fact, unemployment is worse than ever and our national debt is well exceeds human comprehension. How's that Hope and Change working out? Lousy.
But Bill Clinton, too, spent his first two years in governmental overreach, with Hillarycare and other liberal shibboleths at the top of his to-do list. Then as now, American revolted and sent in a new Republican Congress to demand a different approach.
And Slick Willie obliged:
The era of big government is over.
This was not just a sound-bite, Clinton actually behaved as if he believed it - reforming welfare and, prodded by Gingrich's Republicans, actually balancing the budget for the first time in living memory.
Result? Tremendous economic growth and wealth-creation - and an increase in government tax revenues to boot. Clinton himself, the old scoundrel, is still revered by almost all Americans as a great President albeit a shady character, because he was able to learn from his political mistakes and do what actually worked.
Would our next Democratic president be as wise?
As well-calculated and eloquently-articulated as the speech was, it failed to honestly address the greatest immediate threat to the United States: internal economic collapse... If the budget deficit is not tackled soon, this will happen to the United States. If nothing is done, a consensus will emerge among a section of academic economists and investors that the level of Federal Government debt is unsustainable.
Even California's Gov. Moonbeam has realized that government must cut, and harshly. Not Obama! So he's going to freeze bureaucrat salaries for a few years - what will that accomplish, when their current salaries and numbers are bankrupting us? Perish the thought of shutting down entire departments, much less reducing taxes paid by actual productive citizens in the real economy.
No, the SOTU Groundhog has predicted two more years of economic winter for the United States. Let's hope we haven't all frozen to death by the time we get a replacement.
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What does Chinese history have to teach America that Joe Biden doesn't know?
..and just like in 1994 Republicans will seize upon some issue, diverting attention from our eroding liberties still enacted by Bush II: US Patriot, Sarbanes Oxley, NCLB, and press for immigration "reform" as though ppl pursuing their happiness are no longer deemed desirable: when Jefferson wrote all men are endowed ..with inalienable rights, he didn't mean brown people from the south...
Their foray into repealing Obamacare will need Senate cooperation, which ain't likely: a pity their myopia betrays their betrayal.
@ Irvnx
Well whadaya know! Yet another person who does not understand the word illegal. As in illegal immigration. Maybe you should give the 4th grade another try there missy.
And another thing.
If you are going to quote Jefferson and the Declaration, do it right. "they are endowed BY OUR CREATOR with certin unalienable rights among these are life liberty and the persuit of happiness". Even I, a mere atheiest understands that those 3 words carry a certin gravity of importance. I like to think of it as our humanity rather than a creator, but the concept is the same. Jefferson put an entity higher than the government to determine what rights were. This is very important because if the government starts creating rights, they can also take them away and subsiquently play games with our ability to think freely. George Washington once said that "We are a nation of LAWS and not of MEN". Meaning that we are ruled only by "natural law", or the rights we get from our humanity, and that nobody gets special sympathy for breking the law. i.e. "I'm just following my dream!"
illegal.. exactly... .clearly if one were to lead a legal life, this country would have never happened, its residents too frightened to assert independence from the British.
shall I say civil disobedience?
shall I say resists those who would control you?
shall I say any life worth living is worth living on its own terms, and not on those dictated by others?
shall I say I am not a sheep, nor do I blindly obey my masters?
What part of "illegal is not immoral" do we not understand: politicians do not discern morality when they pander, pose, and proscribe: they deceive, and i am not deceived.
Illegal is meaningless when we use it to disenfranchise a group of men seeking to better themselves, for then we ascribe to that term all men who do so:
If they are guilty of a heinous crime– which they are not– then say, but state the statute, describe their punishment.
If they are violent, let their batteries be known.
If you fear their independence, are terrified at their audacity, their brazen approach to life, then cower in your bunker, and be silent: the world does not care for your fear, nor do I.
you see, this is much more than "illegal immigration", it is an assault upon your very existence.
Good luck.. yo hablo español, señor.
So you truly are an open-borders freak, irvnx? When does it stop? More than half of the population of Mexico, to say nothing of the rest of the world, wants to come here. Have we no right to control how many foreigners of different culture and language come here to overrun our citizens, cities, and institutions?
http://www.scragged.com/articles/mexican-opinion-poll-raises-profound-questions
@ Irvnx
Go ahead, totaly ignore the quote from Washington himself at the end of my rebuttal. (Here it is again if you missed it) "We are a nation of laws. Not of men." The law is the law. Fail to respect it at your own risk. Why do you think the founders made it so simple to change a law? It is realy a painfully simple process. We vote on it! TA-DA!! Or vote in somebody that would change it! The fact that the voters and representatives both have not made a serious push to change this law in itself reveals that there is more to it than "we fear them". If you remember (and something tells me that you don't) the US allowed millions of Cubans into the US in the 1950's to escape Fidel's regime. Why would we do that? Don't we fear brown people? It was because they were all documented (making them legal) and they came from a stable country (before Castro). I live in Florida and truely appreciate the culture they have brought to my state. But so far, the only thing that illegal immigration from Mexico and centeral America has brought us is gang violence and drugs, not exactly much of an incentive to open our boarders, is it? Please read the link (I know its a blog, but its all backed parentheticly just like this site) http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2009/jan/illegal-immigrant-gangs-commit-most-u-s-crime
@Patience
of cousre they would come here: is that a crime ?
A crime to be free of tyranny ? of oppression? to have hope ?
and i might add, any willing worker who comes here & gets employed is certainly worthy of our respect...
@N Bush: I am a convicted cocaine dealer: I know Mexicanos, and i know my customers; that the war on drugs is a failure is evident in the falling price of cocaine, but more to the point is here in Colorado my predominant clients were adamant, albeit irreligious, Republicans, who saw no contradiction in their proclivity to the drug usage and free market.
As well they should: a man's habits must not be subject to the whims of an irrational legislature– as witness the "Obamacare".
no man needs a government sanction to improve his life. I can think of several Jews who left Germany Poland the USSR back in a time, and brought their productive ethic there to the US;
i see the same in the Mexicans I meet working on houses, the streets, cafes and bistros, and I wonder why anyone would bar their effort:
it's not about "legality", it's about control...
and no one needs to be controlled, especially in the land of the free.
A note to Republicans who think "illegal immigrants"are criminals: [Travis Karr]
If the greatest natural resource of any nation is the reasoning minds of individuals (without which no other resource can even be used), why would any sane country want to keep willing people out?
QED [therefore it is shown]..that we are insane.
@ Irvinx
Now the truth comes out, a criminal defending criminals. Hey, if you "respect" them so much, why dont you go and get your self a real job? Americans dont work for below minimum wage because guess what? THAT'S ILLEGAL! I have worked these "undesireable" jobs my entire life. Construction, landscaping, bars, ect. now I am soon to be shipping out to Parris Island to defend the country that I love. I have had tough times, but at least I'm not a parasite who ruins people's lives. You make me sick, but I cant say that I am surprised, or disapointed.
Irvinx: read this: http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/255320/two-californias-victor-davis-hanson
the last I heard illegal "presence" in the US was a civil infraction, a $100 fine .. not a status worthy of incarceration, though those who view "breathing while Brown" have other ideas.
As a construction engineer I value those who produce: sorry, los Mexicanos are ppl who do so.
As a man who loves life, I see immeasurable joy in ppl who do not fear, but especially in those who do not fear an alien statist mentality such as this federal government.
PS I have a real job: I produce, use ppl who do, and despise those who consider the pursuit of happiness a crime:--
ppl like hater Republicans, who see our profitability as crimes.
ppl like racists, who see brown ppl as inferior (I am blonde blue eyed)
pll who use fear, like the Bush/Cheney style neo cons, who see this as opportunity to fool those who will not think.
ppl like the self styled "Progressives" who advance their march towards the same totalitarian goal of service to the state
@Nathan.. enjoy your service as a puppet of the politicians: you are fodder for their fallacy if you serve w/o protecting, and take the bullet while they prosper at the expense of us all.
At least in my time we had real enemies exterior to the country called Soviets: you have only your own kind to fear.
Just gotten as an e-mail.............
10 yr old grandson
I was eating lunch on the 20th of February with my 10-year-old grandson and I asked him, "What day is tomorrow?"
He said "It's President's Day!"
He is a smart kid.
I asked "What does President's Day mean?"
I was waiting for something about Washington or Lincoln ... Etc.
He replied, "President's Day is when President Obama steps out of the White House, and if he sees his shadow we have one more year of unemployment."
You know, it hurts when coffee spurts out your nose...