1345 Obama - Rush CPAC

Rush Limbaugh - Feb 28, 2009 - Keynote CPAC Speech
10,681 words - no teleprompter (are Steve's core beliefs good enough for such a feat?)

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you all very, very much. Thank you all. I can't tell you how wonderful that makes me feel. It happens everywhere I go, but it's still special here. If you all will indulge me, I learned something, I guess, it's early Friday morning that I didn't know. Friday morning is when I learned this. I learned that Fox, God love them, is televising this speech on the Fox News Channel, which means, ladies and gentleman, this is my first ever address to the nation.

Now, I have someone in back taking phone numbers. In fact, I would like to introduce to you my security chief, a man who runs all of my security. His name is Joseph Stalin. Joseph, would you please -- I am safe from any liberal attack, in public, because they would be afraid of offending Stalin. Now the opportunity here to address the nation, a serious one, it really is. And I want to take it seriously. I want to address something. I know that people are probably watching this who never have listened to my program and may not even really know what conservatism is. They think they do based on how they've been told -- the way we've been impugned and maligned and so forth. One of the things that is totally erroneous about me -- and I just want to get this up front -- is that I'm pompous.

And that I am arrogant. Neither of these things are remotely true. I can tell you a joke to illustrate this. Larry King passed away, goes to heaven. He's greeted by Saint Peter at the gates. Saint Peter says, "Welcome, Mr. King, it's great to have you here. I want to show you around, give you an idea of what's here, maybe you can pick a place that you'd like to reside." King says, "I just have one question: Is Rush Limbaugh here?"

"No, he's got a lot of time yet, Mr. King." So Saint Peter begins the tour. Larry King sees the various places and it's beyond anything we can imagine in terms of beauty. Finally, he gets to the biggest room of all, with this giant throne. And over the throne is a flashing beautiful angelic neon sign that says "Rush Limbaugh."

And Larry King looks at Saint Peter and says: "I thought you said he wasn't here."

"He said, he's not, he's not. This is God's room. He just thinks he's Rush Limbaugh."

So you see I'm not pompous.

Now, seriously, for those of you watching on C-SPAN as well, and on Fox, I want to tell you who we all are in this room. I want to tell you who conservatives are. We conservatives have not done a good enough job of just laying out basically who we are because we make the mistake of assuming people know. What they know is largely incorrect based on the way we are portrayed in pop culture, in the Drive-By Media, by the Democrat Party.

Let me tell you who we conservatives are: We love people. When we look out over the United States of America, when we are anywhere, when we see a group of people, such as this or anywhere, we see Americans. We see human beings. We don't see groups. We don't see victims. We don't see people we want to exploit. What we see -- what we see is potential. We do not look out across the country and see the average American, the person that makes this country work. We do not see that person with contempt. We don't think that person doesn't have what it takes. We believe that person can be the best he or she wants to be if certain things are just removed from their path like onerous taxes, regulations and too much government.

We want every American to be the best he or she chooses to be. We recognize that we are all individuals. We love and revere our founding documents, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. We believe that the preamble to the Constitution contains an inarguable truth that we are all endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights, among them life. Liberty, Freedom. And the pursuit of happiness. Those of you watching at home may wonder why this is being applauded. We conservatives think all three are under assault. Thank you. Thank you.

We don't want to tell anybody how to live. That's up to you. If you want to make the best of yourself, feel free. If you want to ruin your life, we'll try to stop it, but it's a waste. We look over the country as it is today, we see so much waste, human potential that's been destroyed by 50 years of a welfare state. By a failed war on poverty.

We love the people of this country. And we want this to be the greatest country it can be, but we do understand, as people created and endowed by our creator, we're all individuals. We resist the effort to group us. We resist the effort to make us feel that we're all the same, that we're no different than anybody else. We're all different. There are no two things or people in this world who are created in a way that they end up with equal outcomes. That's up to them. They are created equal, given the chance - -

We don't hate anybody. We don't -- I mean, the racism in this country, if you ask me, I know many people in this audience -- let me deal with this head on. You know what the cliche is, a conservative: racist, sexist, bigot, homophobe. Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen of America, if you were paying attention, I know you were, the racism in our culture was exclusively and fully on display in the Democrat primary last year.

It was not us asking whether Barack Obama was authentic. What we were asking is: Is he wrong? We concluded, yes. We still think so. But we didn't ask if he was authentically black. We didn't say, as some Southern Christian Leadership Conference leaders said: Barack is not authentic, he's not got any slave blood. He's really not down for the struggle, but his wife is. So don't expect the race industry to go away. Southern Christian Leadership Conference -- you may not know this, because it wasn't reported in the Drive-By Media -- the racism, the sexism, the bigotry that we're all charged with, just so you across the United States of America know, and you'll see demonstrated here as the afternoon goes on, doesn't exist on our side. We want everybody to succeed.

You know why? We want the country to succeed, and for the country to succeed, its people -- its individuals -- must succeed. Everyone among us must be pursuing his ambition or her desire, whatever, with excellence. Trying to be the best they can be. Not told, as they are told by the Democrat Party: You really can't do that, you don't have what it takes, besides you're a minority or you're a woman and there are too many people that want to discriminate against you. You can't get anywhere. You need to depend on us.

Well. Take a look, someone has to say this -- I am thrilled for the opportunity to say it in my first national address to the nation -- and I'm going to touch on this in more detail in a moment, but this is just to get you thinking -- take a look at all the constituency groups that for 50 years have been depending on the Democrat Party to improve their lives. And you tell me if you find any. They're still complaining, still griping about the same problems. Their problems don't get fixed by government. And those lives have been poisoned. Those lives have been cut short by false promises, from government representatives who said don't worry about it, we'll take care of you. Just vote for us.

For those of you just tuning in on the Fox News Channel or C-SPAN, I'm Rush Limbaugh and I want everyone in this room and every one of you around the country to succeed. I want anyone who believes in life, liberty, pursuit of happiness to succeed. And I want any force, any person, any element of an overarching Big Government that would stop your success, I want that organization, that element or that person to fail. I want you to succeed. Also, for those of you in the Drive-By Media watching, I have not needed a teleprompter for anything I've said. And nor do any of us need a teleprompter, because our beliefs are not the result of calculations and contrivances. Our beliefs are not the result of a deranged psychology. Our beliefs are our core. Our beliefs are our hearts. We don't have to make notes about what we believe. We don't have to write down, oh do I believe it do I believe that we can tell people what we believe off the top of our heads and we can do it with passion and we can do it with clarity, and we can do it persuasively. Some of us just haven't had the inspiration or motivation to do so in a number of years, but that's about to change.

For example, we gather here -- I understand that. I talked to David and Lisa in the super exclusive private green room that nobody, but about 55 people were allowed into, and they said that there's a sense of liberation here among all of you that are attending CPAC. I understand what the sense of liberation is about. But don't make the mistake at the same time of feeling liberated as thinking we're better and we can do better as a minority. Because we're not a minority. And if you start thinking of yourselves as a minority, you're going to be defensive. And you'll allow the majority to set the agenda and the premise and you're responding to it. The American people may not all vote the way we wish them to, but more Americans than you now live their lives as conservatives in one degree or another. And they are waiting for leadership. We need conservative leadership. We can take this country back. All we need is to nominate the right candidate. It's no more complicated than that.

Now, let me speak about President Obama for just a second. President Obama is one of the most gifted politicians, one of the most gifted men that I have ever witnessed. He has extraordinary talents. He has communication skills that hardly anyone can surpass. No, seriously. No, no, I'm being very serious about this. It just breaks my heart that he does not use these extraordinary talents and gifts to motivate and inspire the American people to be the best they can be. He's doing just the opposite. And it's a shame. President Obama has the ability -- he has the ability to inspire excellence in people's pursuits. He has the ability to do all this, yet he pursues a path, seeks a path that punishes achievement, that punishes earners and punishes -- and he speaks negatively of the country. Ronald Reagan used to speak of a shining city on a hill. Barack Obama portrays America as a soup kitchen in some dark night in a corner of America that's very obscure. He's constantly telling the American people that bad times are ahead, worst times are ahead. And it's troubling, because this is the United States of America. Anybody ever ask -- I'm in awe of our country and I ask this question a lot as I've gotten older. We're less than 300 years old. We are younger than nations that have been on this planet for thousands of years. We, nevertheless, in less than 300 years -- by the way, we're no different than any other human beings around the world. Our DNA is no different. We're not better just because we're born in America. There's nothing that sets us apart. How did this happen? How did the United States of America become the world's lone super power, the world's economic engine, the most prosperous opportunity for an advanced lifestyle that humanity has ever known? How did this happen? And why pray tell does the President of the United States want to destroy it? It saddens me.

The freedom we spoke of earlier is the freedom, it's the ambition, it's the desire, the wherewithal, the passions that people have that gave us the great entrepreneurial advances, the great inventions, the greatest food production, the human lifestyle advances in this country. Why shouldn't that be rewarded? Why is that now the focus of punishment? Why is that now the focus of blame? Why doesn't -- Mayor Bloomberg the other day, ladies and gentlemen, resisting his Governor's call for an increased tax on the rich in New York had some astounding numbers. Eight million people live in New York. 40,000 of those eight million pay roughly 60 to 70% of New York's operating budget. He was afraid that if he raised taxes on those people some of them might leave. Mayor, one already has, by the way. Stop and think of this, though. Stop and think of this. Forty thousand people out of eight million. He's right, if 10,000 of them leave, or 5,000, they've got a huge problem. Because New York has its own welfare state inside the one the federal government's created. They've got a dependency class that has grown up and been educated that their entitlement is to be fed and taken care of by these evil mean people who have more than they do. If New York City, New York State or Washington, DC were a business, these 40,000 people would be taken on golf tournament trips to Los Angeles, and they would be wined and dined and they would be thanked and they would be encouraged to keep it up. They wouldn't be told they're the problem. They wouldn't be told, except there's -- I pride my accuracy rating. There is one other business where the customer is always wrong and that's the media. Sorry about that.

Have you ever called to complain about whatever they do? They say, yes, sir, yes, sir, three bags full. They hang up and say you're too stupid to know how they're doing what they're doing. You can't get it. You're not sophisticated enough. So that's another business where the customer is always wrong. But, seriously, the people who have achieved great things, most of it is not inherited. Most wealth in this country is the result of entrepreneurial, just plain old hard work. There's no reason to punish it. There's no reason to raise taxes on these people. Barack Obama, the Democrat Party, have one responsibility, and that's to respect the oath they gave to protect, defend and follow the US Constitution.

They don't have the right to take money that's not theirs, from the back pockets of producers, and give it to groups like ACORN, which are going to advance the Democrat Party. If anybody but government were doing this, it would be a crime. And many of us think it's bordering on that as it exists now.

President Obama is so busy trying to foment and create anger in a created atmosphere of crisis, he is so busy fueling the emotions of class envy that he's forgotten it's not his money that he's spending. In fact, the money he's spending is not ours. He's spending wealth that has yet to be created. And that is not sustainable. It will not work. This has been tried around the world. And every time it's been tried, it's a failed disaster.

What's the longest war in American history? Did somebody say the war on poverty? Smart group. War on poverty. The war on poverty essentially started in the '30s as part of the New Deal, but it really ramped up in the '60s with Lyndon Johnson, part of the Great Society war on poverty. We have transferred something like 10 trillion, maybe close to 11 trillion, from producers and earners to nonproducers and nonearners since 1965. Yet, as I listen to the Democratic Party campaign, why, America is still a soup kitchen, the poor is still poor and they have no hope and they're poor for what reason? They're poor because of us, because we don't care, and because we've gotten rich by taking from them, that's what kids in school are taught today. That's what others have said to the media. You know why they're poor, you know why they remain poor? Because their lives have been destroyed by the never-ending government hay that's designed to help them, but it destroys ambition. It destroys the education they might get to learn to be self-fulfilling. And it breaks our heart. It breaks our heart. We lose track of numbers with all of the money, with all the money that's been transferred, redistributed, with all the charitable giving in this country.

Ladies and gentlemen, there ought not be any poverty except those who are genuinely ill equipped. But most of the people in poverty in this country are equipped for far much more. They've just been beaten down. They're told don't worry, we'll take care of you. There's nothing out there for you anyway; you'll be discriminated against. Breaks our heart to see this. We can't have a great country and a growing economy with more and more people being told they have a right, because of some injustice that's been done to them or some discrimination, that they have a right to the earnings of others. And it's gotten so out of hand now that what worries me is that this administration, the Barack Obama administration is actively seeking to expand the welfare state in this country because he wants to control it.

George Will once asked Dr. Friedrich Von Hayek, tremendous classical economist, great man, 1975, George Will, Dr. Von Hayek, why is it that intellectuals, supposed smartest people in the room, why is it that intellectuals can look right out their windows, their own homes and cars and look at their universities and not see the bounties and the growth and the greatness of capitalism? And Von Hayek said: I've troubled over this for years and I've finally concluded that for intellectuals, pseudo-intellectuals, and all liberals, it's about control. It's not about raising revenue. You think Obama has any intention of paying for all this spending? Folks, if he had any intention of paying for it, he wouldn't do 90% of it because we don't have the money.

They don't care about paying for it. All that's just words. All that's just rhetoric paying for it because he knows you have to worry about paying for it. He knows we all have to be concerned -- oh, except, wrong again. Except the words of Barney Frank and Chris Dodd who were given homes that everybody knew they could never pay for, and now Barney Frank and Chris Dodd, the architects along with Bill Clinton of the policy that gave us the whole sub-prime mortgage crisis, get to sit around and act as innocent spectators to investigate what went on when they largely had the biggest role in causing it.

Congressman Frank's definition of affordable housing is you get a house you don't have to pay for that everybody else in the neighborhood will pay for. Why? Because it's unfair that some people can have a house and some people can't. Geez, it's just unfair. So here we have two systems. We have socialism, collectivism, Stalin, whatever you want to call it, versus capitalism. Admittedly over on the right side capitalism there will be unequal outcomes because we're all different. And some of us care more and have more passion and we know what we want to do and others are still struggling for it. Some people are just going to work harder than others. Okay. You get what you work for. Those who have a genuine inability for whatever reason are taken care of. We're compassionate people. On the left side when you get into this collectivism socialism stuff, these people on the left, the Democrats and liberals today claim that they are pained by the inequities and the inequalities in our society. And they believe that these inequities and inequalities descend from the selfishness and the greed of the achievers. And so they tell the people who are on different income quintiles, whatever lists, they say it's not that you're not working hard enough, you could have what they have, perhaps, if you applied it. They're stealing it from you.

Sowhat liberals do, and I say this again to the -- another thing, I know people in the country are watching. I was watching a focus group after some event this week. Might have been after Obama's State of the Union show. And they had -- it was a typical, you know, Drive-By Media focus group. They round up losers -- -- who hear Obama speak and think that the next day their gas tanks are going to be filled up and get a new house and a new kitchen and a new car. And so this one guy said -- oh, it was some guy responding to Bobby Jindal. Oh, by the way did you hear about Joe Biden? Joe Biden was mystified how Bobby Jindal got his shift off at 7-Eleven that night to make the speech. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Time out. Suspend speech for explanation. People watching at home. I'm glad this happened. Glad this happened. You think I just made a joke, an ethnic joke about Bobby Jindal, don't you? I didn't. I made a joke about the bigotry of the Vice President of the United States, Joe Biden. It was Joe Biden while walking through the train station he knows so well because he's such a real guy, that he made a comment that you can't go into a 7-Eleven without seeing some Indian guy behind the counter. They're all over the place.

Now, let a conservative say something like that and he's brought up before John Conyers' committee with Pat Leahy wanting at you next. Many people think I lose my place in these speeches because -- by the way what time is it? We have plenty of time. We have to be out of here by -- We have to be out of here by 6:00 -- okay, depends on how you behave. I'll decide as we go on. What liberalism Democrat, for those of you in the country, I really want you to believe this because it's the truth. I'm not saying it just because I believe it. This is a core. I want the best country we can have. We want the most prosperous people. We want to be growing. We want to lead the world. We want everybody to come here legally. We want this country to be so damn great and we just cringe to watch it -- basically capitalism be assaulted and our culture be reoriented to where the people that make it work are the enemy. That's not the United States of America. The people that make this country work, the people who pay on their mortgages, the people getting up and going to work, striving in this recession to not participate in it, they're not the enemy.

They're the people that hire you. They're the people that are going to give you a job. They're the people that are going to give you a raise, the people that need you to do work for them. President Obama, and take your pick of any Democrat, love to say we've tried it your way. Meaning Reaganism. We've tried it your way. We tried it your way in the '80s and it didn't work. We tried it your way eight years, the last eight years and it didn't work. Excuse me. Excuse me. Have you ever noticed those of you watching around the world in my first international address to the world, Fox is on some international satellites. They're watching this in the UK right now going (cringing). When Obama talks about past economies, he somehow always leaves out the recession of the '80s as worse than this one. Why does he leave it out? Because you know why he leaves it out, America? He leaves it out because we got out of that recession with tax cuts. For those of you watching at home, I'm not nervous it's just really hot in here. These people are wired. We got out of the 1980s recession with tax cuts. Do you know that President Obama, in six weeks of his administration, has proposed more spending than from the founding of the country to his inauguration?

Now, this is not prosperity. It is not going to engender prosperity. It's not going to create prosperity and it's also not going to advance or promote freedom. It's going to be just the opposite. There are going to be more controls over what you can and can't do, how you can and can't do it, what you can and can't drive, what you can and can't say, where you can and can't say it. All of these things are coming down the pike, because it's not about revenue generation to them, it's about control. They do believe that they have compassion. They do believe they care. But, see, we never are allowed to look at the results of their plans, we are told we must only look at their good intentions, their big hearts. The fact that they have destroyed poor families by breaking up those families by offering welfare checks to women to keep having babies no more father needed, he's out doing something, the government's the father, they destroy the family. We're not supposed to analyze that. We're not supposed to talk about that. We're supposed to talk about their good intentions. They destroy people's futures. The future is not Big Government. Self-serving politicians. Powerful bureaucrats. This has been tried, tested throughout history. The result has always been disaster. President Obama, your agenda is not new. It's not change, and it's not hope. Spending a nation into generational debt is not an act of compassion. All politicians, including President Obama, are temporary stewards of this nation. It is not their task to remake the founding of this country. It is not their task to tear it apart and rebuild it in their image.

It is not their task, it is not their right to remake this nation to accommodate their psychology. I sometimes wonder if liberalism is not just a psychosis or a psychology, not an ideology. It's so much about feelings, and the predominant feeling that liberalism is about is about feeling good about themselves and they do that by telling themselves they have all this compassion. You know, if you really want to unhinge a liberal it's hard to do because they're so unhinged now anyway, even after -- but all you have to do is say you know that the things you people do, the things you people believe in are cruel. That's the last way they look at themselves. They are the best people on the -- they're the good people. You tell them that their ideas and that their policies are cruel and the eggs start scrambling.

I have learned how to tweak liberals everywhere. I do it instinctively now. Tweak them in the media. And no reason to be afraid of these people. Why in the world would you be afraid of the deranged? There really is no reason to be afraid of them. And there's no reason to assume they're the minority. And there's no reason to let them set all the premises and all the agendas to which we respond to. I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself here but everybody asks me and I'm sure it's been a focal point of your convention: What do we do as conservatives? What do we do? How do we overcome this?

Well, the one thing, and there are many, but one thing that we can all do is stop assuming that the way to beat them is with better policy ideas right now. I don't want to name any names. It's not the point. But I talk to people about the Obama budget or the Obama Porkulous bill or whatever else TARP 2 whatever it's going to be, and they start talking to me in the terms of process and policy. I say stop it. What do you mean? Who is setting the process or policy? They are. You want to tweak it? No. This is philosophy, folks. This guy, I forgot -- the guy in the focus group after Bobby Jindal said, I didn't want to hear him talk, he said: Republicans and Democrats. Republicans and Democrats. Ladies and gentlemen of the United States of America, that's exactly what your future is about, who wins, Republicans or Democrats, conservatives versus liberals. The notion of partisanship, false premise. Let me define bipartisanship for you. Bipartisanship -- everybody seems to go orgasmic over the concept of bipartisanship. Don't worry, I checked with Fox, that word's okay.

Remember, they covered the Lewinsky thing, so that's my -- bipartisanship occurs only after one other result, and that is victory. In other words, let's say as conservatives liberals demand that we be bipartisan with them in Congress. What they mean is: We check our core principles at the door, come in, let them run the show and agree with them. That's bipartisanship to them. To us, bipartisanship is them being forced to agree with us after we politically have cleaned their clocks and beaten them. And that has to be what we're focused on. Why would any of us in this room who hold the core beliefs we believe, somebody tell me where is the compromise on all of this spending? Where is the compromise on all this punishment of the achievers. I don't know.

Where is the compromise between good and evil? Should Jesus have cut a different deal? Serious. From the standpoint of what we have to do, folks, this is not about taking a policy or a process that the Democrats have put forward and fighting around the edges. If we're going to convince the minds and hearts of the American people that what's about to happen to them is as disastrous as anything in their lives in peacetime, we're going to have to discuss philosophy with them. We are going to have to talk about principles, because our principles are not present in what's happening here. So where the hell do we go to compromise what we believe in when our principles are not their principles, they're just the opposite of what's happening?

The American people -- it's a tough challenge. I admit -- I admit it's a tough challenge, but it's worth it. It's worth it. The way I just defined bipartisanship you could turn it around and liberals will define bipartisanship when we surrender and say okay we give. We're not quitting. We are not giving up. The country is too important. There are certain realities. We don't have the votes in Capitol Hill to stop what's going to happen. What we can do is slow it down, procedure, parliamentary procedures, slow it down and do the best we can to inform the American people of what's really on the horizon. I know it's going to be tough. At some points, I don't think it can happen even right now. This is still the honeymoon period, and there's a lot of devotion to the Obama administration. It doesn't have anything to do with intellectual thinking, it's feelings. It's going to take some time for this to play out. But I spoke to David Keene, interviewing him for my newsletter. I asked him about this. He said they're going to overreach. Wouldn't you say they have? .

They're going to overreach. At some point, at some point people have got to realize none of this is possible. You can't have people living in homes they don't pay for. You can't have people driving cars they don't pay for. I mean, you can for a while. But after a while the people paying for it -- screw this. We're not putting up with it. And you're going to see -- you're already starting to see evidence of these. All the tea parties that are starting to bubble up out there. Those are great. Fabulous. And here's the big question. Here's the big question. And I ask this again in the context of my first address to the nation. You don't know how I love saying that, how excited I am about this. Aside from the bastardization of the Constitution that the Obama plans are, that TARP is, it's not constitutional. Aside from that, where is the evidence that the people offering all of this have ever succeeded in any similar plans before? There's none. There is no evidence it works.

So you say how is he getting it done? Dumb down public education. Emotions. And the ongoing -- this is why I think it's such a waste for a man as gifted as President Obama with the communications skills, you know he could wipe out the Republican Party. He can wipe out the Republican Party if he would inspire this country to be the best it could be, but we don't have to worry about that because that's not what he wants. He wants people in fear, angst and crisis, fearing the worst each and every day because that clears the decks for President Obama and his pals to come in with the answers, which are abject failures, historically shown and demonstrated. Doesn't matter. They'll have control of it when it's all over. And that's what they want. Because they think they can do it better. They see these inequalities, these inequities that capitalism produces. How do they fix it? Do they try to elevate those at the bottom? No! They try to tear down the people at the bottom. It's not fair you're up there. So they whack us. That's not what made the country great. And no evidence of it is in play here.

John Kerry , who served in Vietnam. Think about this, and, by the way, Barney Frank got involved with this, too. Northern Trust, a bank in Chicago -- by the way, which holds the mortgage to the Messiah's house, purchased by Tony Rezko, Northern Trust holds the mortgage. Northern Trust was forced, like Wells Fargo was forced, to take TARP money. The Wells Fargo CEO said they were taken into Paulson's room and they were given until 5:00 to sign it. They weren't getting out until they did. They wanted it spread all over the banking business. Northern Trust was in there. They didn't want it. They took $1.6 billion. As you know, they went out and they sponsored the LA Riveria Open two weeks ago that Phil Mickelson barely hung on and won.

And we find out they hired some liberals to entertain, but it still wasn't good enough. They hired Sheryl Crow. And they hired the rock crooner group Chicago, but they had the audacity, Northern Trust did, to entertain their clients, to try to reward their best customers, to get new customers, banking is in trouble, Northern Trust is trying to do what they always do, what all businesses do, and that is mine for new clients and reward existing good customers. Not since they took $1.6 billion, I guess. The haughty John Kerry wrote a piece of legislation said: He's getting sick and tired, sick and tired of these CEOs using taxpayer money to throw all these lavish parties. And I'm saying where do you get yours, Senator?

Sad thing, sad thing is it works. They've created class envy in so many average Americans that they love hearing that. Yeah, you get even with those bank guys. How is it going to improve here? Let me ask a question for those of you watching my first national address. Take the favorite villain you've got, maybe it's John Thain at Merrill Lynch, because he used his own money, his company's own money, his company's own money, to redecorate a bathroom in an office for $1.2 million. By the way, to do that he had to hire a contractor. They got paid. Had to hire a designer and buy furniture, that's called stimulus. And he did it.

But all of a sudden John Thain's thrown out. John Thain is thrown out. He's humiliated and embarrassed; how dare he? He did it a year before they took the TARP money. And all these Congressmen are standing up saying this is not going to happen. We are not going to watch these people capping executive pay while Obama tries to live like one. You know, he's trying to emulate the lifestyle he is attacking. That's what liberals do. Two sets of rules: One for them; one for everybody else. But it's coming. See, if you think that John Thain or the Northern Trust CEO, if you love them getting attacked, if you love them being ripped, ask yourself the next day, do you have any more money in your pocket? Is your life any better because that guy got taken out or down by some haughty senator from Massachusetts?

If you ask yourself this, you'll realize your life is no better off. That the Democrats and Obama are asking you to feel better simply on the basis that they're going to get revenge for you, but your life isn't going to improve, somebody else's is just going to be destroyed and they want you to be happy over that. That's sick. And that is not the United States of America. Besides, as far as John Kerry is concerned, if it wasn't for his varicose veins, he would be totally colorless.

Now let's talk about the conservative movement as it were. We, ladies and gentlemen, have challenges that are part and parcel of a movement that feels it has just suffered a humiliating defeat when it's not humiliating. This wasn't a landslide victory, 52 to, what, 46. Fifty-eight million people voted against Obama. There would have been more if we would have had a conservative nominee. I don't mean that -- I mean that in an instructive way, as a lead-in to what I'm talking about here. No humiliating defeat here. I can't -- sometimes I get livid and angry. We do have an organizational problem. We have a challenge. We've got factions now within our own movement seeking power to dominate it, and worst of all to redefine it. Well, the Constitution doesn't need to be redefined. Conservative intellectuals, the Declaration of Independence does not need to be redefined and neither does conservatism. Conservatism is what it is and it is forever. It's not something you can bend and shape and flake and form. Thank you. Thank you.

For the purposes of this occasion, I'm not going to mention any names, I bet with you I won't have to. People watching my first address to the nation might be curious what I'm talking about. They'll find out in due course, trust me on this. I cringed -- it might have been 2007, late 2007 or sometime during 2008, but a couple of prominent conservative but Beltway establishment media types began to write on the concept that the era of Reagan is over.

And that we needed to adapt our appeal, because, after all, what's important in politics is winning elections. And so we have to understand that the American people, they want Big Government. We just have to find a way to tell them we're no longer opposed to that. We will come up with our own version of it that is wiser and smarter, but we've got to go get the Walmart voter, and we've got to get the Hispanic voter, and we've got to get the recalcitrant independent women. And I'm listening to this and I am just apoplectic: The era of Reagan is over? When the hell do you hear a Democrat say the era of FDR is over? You never hear it. Not only that, the President of the United States today thinks he's FDR, thinks he's Abraham Lincoln, and sometimes, Tuesday night, thinks he's Ronald Reagan. Our own movement has members trying to throw Reagan out while the Democrats know they can't accomplish what they want unless they appeal to Reagan voters. We have got to stamp this out within this movement, because it will tear us apart. It will guarantee we lose elections.

We have to. You see, to me it's a no-brainer. It's not even something to me: How do you get rid of Reagan from conservatism? The blueprint -- the blueprint for landslide conservative victory is right there. Why in the hell do the smartest people in our room want to chuck it? I know why. I know exactly why. It's because they're embarrassed of some of the people who call themselves conservatives. These people in New York and Washington, cocktail elitists, they get made fun of when the next NASCAR race is on TV and their cocktail buds come up to them, those people are in your party? How do you put up with this? It would be easy to throw them overboard, so as to maintain these cocktail party/Beltway/New York City/inside-the-Beltway media relationships. But I tell you: This notion that Reaganism is dead, conservatism needs to be refined, let's take a look at this. We've got to go get the Walmart voter. I opened my remarks tonight by telling the people watching on Fox who we conservatives are. When I look out at you in this audience, I don't see a Walmart voter. And I don't see a black, and I don't see a woman, and I don't see a Hispanic. I see human beings who happen to be fortunate enough to be the luckiest people on Earth since you are Americans.

Conservatism -- for us to make the decision that we've got to figure out policies, to get the Walmart voter -- psst, we've got most of them already, is the bottom line. Conservatism is a universal set of core principles. You don't check principles at the door. This is a battle that we're going to have. And there are egos involved here, too. When the situation like ours exists, there are people who want to lead it. They want to redefine it. Their egos are such that they want to be the next X, whoever it is. So there will be different factions lining up to try to define what conservatism is. And beware of those different factions who seek as part of their attempt to redefine conservatism, as making sure the liberals like us, making sure that the media likes us. They never will, as long as we remain conservatives. They can't possibly like us; they're our enemy. In a political arena of ideas, they're our enemy. They think we need to be defeated. Why do you think -- you all in this room know this. For those of you watching at home, my first address to the nation -- -- I'm sure you paid close enough attention, that you knew at one time Senator McCain was the favorite Republican of all the cable news networks and the Sunday shows. And they would just -- I mean their tongues would be on the floor. The media people (panting) when they knew McCain was coming. And they would treat McCain as the greatest guy in the world. Did you wonder why? You were told he was moderate. He was not strict. He was not an authoritarian, he was able to walk to the other side of the aisle, able to get along with the enemy. And everybody wants love and bipartisanship.

That's not why they invited Senator McCain. They invited Senator McCain because he happened to be the loudest at criticizing his own president and his own party and that's what they want, is people from our side -- and there will be factions in our movement, folks, who are going to make an effort to say we have to grow, we can't stay stale, I think I heard the term used the other day. Nothing stale about freedom. There's nothing stale about liberty. There's nothing stale about fighting for it. Nothing stale whatsoever. Freedom. Are you getting tired of standing up, I don't blame you. By the way for those watching on TV you think the standing -- people are just tired. They've been up and out of their chairs 100 times here. Thank you. Freedom -- freedom is the natural yearning of the human spirit as we were endowed by our creator. And the United States of America is the place in the world where that yearning flourishes, where freedom is expected because it's part of the way we're created.

I loved it when the Soviet Union went down and the wall went down and the liberals in our country said you know they may not be ready for freedom over there. They've been oppressed -- yes, liberals will gladly tell you who can have freedom and who can't. And that's what the pieces of legislation are all about, folks, freedom, liberty, economic prosperity, they're all entwined here. We'll have to as a conservative movement understand that our job, after we come to an agreement among ourselves, which shouldn't be hard but it's going to be difficult because the people that think they're smarter than everybody else are going to be out there forging alliances with people that try to make themselves look like new power brokers, and they will become the spokesmen, by the way.

By the way, explain that to you. This is a funny story. Show you how I can hijack a news cycle even by doing anything. The Tuesday before the inauguration, President Bush invited me to the Oval Office for lunch. And it was on and off the record, some of the conversations. And he brought out, interesting, at the end of it -- my birthday had been the day before. He brought out a chocolate birthday cake, a microphone, and stood beside me with Ed Gillespie and sang happy birthday. Photographers taking pictures. I wish my parents were alive. My parents wouldn't believe my life. They came out of the Great Depression. They didn't think it was possible for somebody who did not go to college -- and even for people who did -- they didn't think this was possible. Life has changed so much for the better in this country. That's why I cringe when I see what is in store.

So as I'm flying home from lunch, I'm watching television and I see that the word has leaked out that Obama is hosting a dinner with conservative media pundits at the home of George Will. I said: I wonder who these people are? In the media, one of them is going to have to leak it. Sure as heck, one did. Now, we all know who were there. And let's see -- I can't remember all the names, so I won't mention any. But let me tell you Obama's purpose. Does anybody really think that Barack Obama had dinner with a bunch of conservatives hoping they would change his mind?

Hell, no. His purpose -- and his purpose really wasn't to change theirs -- his purpose was to anoint them as conservative spokesmen. These are the people that Obama's willing to break bread with. These happen -- some of the people there happen to be the people who think the era of Reagan is over, who believe that conservatism needs to be redefined. Of course Obama would try to lure them in. Well, all of a sudden I land. I get home about 5:00, and my e-mail is jammed with questions from reporters, are you, is that why you took the day off today? Is that why you're not on the air? Are you going to dinner with Obama? By the way, I left out a crucial part of the story. Was this a Monday, Kit? It was a Tuesday. I had forgotten to tell my audience that I was going to miss the next day. I signed off the show saying I'll see you tomorrow. That's the last thing I said. The staff reminded me you're not going to be here tomorrow. I came up with a plan, that the guest host the next day would say that I was called out of town to Washington at midnight the night before. Just an innocent little trick on the radio audience. Everybody picked that up and thinks I'm invited to the Obama dinner. So those people that were invited to it got less coverage than I did and I didn't even know about it. It was fun.

Conservatives are naturally happy. We seek happiness. We pursue it. It's part of who we are. So what can you do? Live your life. I swear, folks, you do not know in just the everyday life that you live in your homes, your neighborhoods, the favorite word of this administration, your "communities." Remember the root word there is "commune." Be happy, live your life according to your values and principles. Know you're going to fail, no human being is perfect, you're going to make mistakes, but live your life -- you'll be stunned at how many people you impress. Don't be afraid to tell children that they're wrong. They don't know what you do. They simply haven't lived long enough. It's not their fault, but they're being fed a bunch of garbage in school and don't be afraid to tell them that they're wrong.

Don't go the Oprah route and say gotta be friends with my parents, my kids, first and foremost. Understand they're going to hate you for a while and they're going to rebel against you and someday they're going to think you're the smartest person they ever met. But you owe them the truth. You owe them the truth about things. You owe them the truth about morality. You owe them the truth about values. You owe them the truth about politics. Next thing, we've got to stop treating voters as children. Somebody says they want something that's bad for them, do you give it to them just to be nice? Or do you tell them, regardless of their age, no, you shouldn't have that? Well, it's none of your business. Maybe not. And then you back out of it. But you still have to have the ability to tell people what's right and wrong. And that's not authoritative. That's not authoritarian. And it's not trying to deny somebody a good time. It's not trying to interrupt somebody's hedonism, pleasure, it's about all of us with shared values trying to make sure that people live the highest quality lives they can. Ultimately, it's their decision as to what they do. But the point is, don't treat them -- especially voters -- as kids just -- they say they want it okay we'll come up with a plan to give it to you.

Have any of you seen the movie -- I'd never heard of it, but I happened to get a DVD the other day. Anybody see the movie Swing Vote with Kevin Costner? You know, it's kind of a moronic movie like most things out of Hollywood are. But this is fascinating in the way -- tell you a short story, because a voter screwup in New Mexico there's one voter who is going to elect the president. His vote didn't count because his daughter voted for him. I won't give the whole story away. But New Mexico's electoral votes, New Mexico's electoral votes determined it. And they have a two-week period before this guy can vote again. So the challenger and the president both relocate to where this guy lives in New Mexico and they end up like the Democrat played by Dennis Hopper stands for antiabortion. The Democrat candidate comes out with a commercial for life. The Republican candidate comes out, because this guy is an idiot and doesn't know what he believes, and every utterance that he makes these politicians react to it throwing their principles on the floor, just to get his vote. Sadly, this is what some of the conservative intellectuals in our movement want to do, essentially. And that we cannot do. We've got to stand for what we believe and treat people as adults and understand they can learn. Go optimism.

Joe Biden, ladies and gentlemen, was watching CBS -- when did you start here? Thursday. You might have seen this. The days run together. It might have been Wednesday, but Biden was on the CBS Early Show. And he was asked -- the anchorette -- sorry. I'm trying to change my ways. I've been doing women summit programs so not to offend women. The anchor, Maggie Rodriguez, went out and got some man-on-the-street questions. And one guy, woman, I think question for Biden. What is in the stimulus package for small business? Biden was clearly stumped because there isn't anything in the stimulus package for small business. So what Biden said, honest to God, what Biden said was: Well, if there's a bridge to your small business, we're going to make sure that bridge stays open so that you can get to your small business and your customers -- honest. I kid you not. Now, of course, the media today is a bunch of hacks, they're out there as PR agents; they're starting to get a little embarrassed. Maggie Rodriguez says, Senator Biden, there's a website that answers all these questions. What is the name of the website and Biden says I don't know. He looks off stage. "Does somebody have the website number?" I realize those of you watching at home during my first address to the nation, you have never heard liberal Democrats be made fun of in this way. Get used to it.

Two other things and we'll get out of here contractually over time. The president's stimulus package, the TARP, the whatever, the budget, relies on one thing for its success. Well, aside from authoritarian government power. It relies on the complacency of the American people. It relies on their belief that they can convince the American people that there's such a crisis that only government, the only entity that can fix it is government, as Obama has said. So they get complacent and they sit around and they wait. See, this is something liberals will never understand about the United States of America and it's right under their noses, right in front of their faces, we are a competitive people. We strive, enough of us do, to be the best. We strive to win. We strive to avoid defeat. Enough of us still do. Don't believe otherwise. The liberals have made efforts to shut that aspect of our nature down. Wherever you live, I am certain that you, when you were a child or your kids today in youth sports are told not to keep score, because the losers, it's just not fair. They'd be humiliated, especially if one girl's basketball team can defeat another one 100 to nothing. And let's fire the coach who put that game together. It's so unfair. So let's not keep score. Well, here's the dirty little secret. The kids are keeping score. You know they are. They don't want to lose. They know what winning and losing is. They're saying, well, why go out there and put on the pads and play football or T-Ball if the objective here is to not keep score. So they're keeping score. They get in the car with mom and dad and they tell mom and dad: Yeah, we kicked their butts tonight. Wait a minute, I thought you weren't keeping score. They weren't officially. They keep score. We're competitive people. Adults are doing the same thing.

It didn't take long for people to get fired up when they figured out that they're going to be paying mortgages for people who should never have been lent money in the first place for the bogus excuse of maintaining property values in the neighborhood. This is something that -- the complacency of the American people is something they're going to rely on along with their authoritarian efforts to control it. But they will not succeed at this. Because we're not quitters. We don't acquiesce. We're not going to give up the American dream and watch idly while it is restructured and transformed.

As I say, we want the best: Happiness for everybody. Now, about my still-to-me mysteriously controversial comment that I hope President Obama fails. I was watching the Super Bowl. And as you know, I love the Pittsburgh Steelers. So they have this miraculous scoring drive that puts them up by four, 15 seconds left. Kurt Warner on the field for the Cardinals. And I sure as heck want you to know I hope he failed. I did not want the Cardinals to win. I wanted Warner to make the biggest fool of himself possible. I wanted a sack, I wanted anything. I wanted the Steelers to win. I wanted to win. I wanted the Cardinals to fail.

This notion that I want the President to fail, folks, this shows you a sign of the problem we've got. That's nothing more than common sense and to not be able to say it, why in the world do I want what we just described, rampant government growth indebtedness, wealth that's not even being created yet that is being spent, what is in this? What possibly is in this that anybody of us wants to succeed? Did the Democrats want the war on Iraq to fail!

They certainly did. They not only wanted the war in Iraq to fail, they proclaimed it a failure. There's Dingy Harry Reid waiving a white flag: "This war is lost. This war is" -- They called General Petraeus a liar before he even testified. Mrs. Clinton -- -- said she had to, willingly suspend disbelief in order to listen to Petraeus. We're in the process of winning the war. The last thing they wanted was to win. They hoped George Bush failed. So what is so strange about being honest to say that I want Barack Obama to fail if his mission is to restructure and reform this country so that capitalism and individual liberty are not its foundation? Why would I want that to succeed?

Let me add a caveat here. My friends, I know what's going on. I know what's going on. We're in the aspects here of an historic presidency. I know that. But let me be honest again. I got over the historical aspects of this in November. President Obama is our president. President Obama stands for certain things. I don't care, he could be a Martian. He could be from Michigan, I don't know -- just kidding. Doesn't matter to me what his race is. It doesn't matter. He's liberal is what matters to me. And his articulated -- his articulated plans scare me. Now, I understand we can't say we want the President to fail, Mr. Limbaugh. That's like saying -- this is the voice of the New Castrati, by the way, guys who have lost their guts. You can't say Mr. Limbaugh that you want the President to fail because that's like saying you want the country to fail. It's the opposite. I want the country to survive. I want the country to succeed.

I want the country to survive as we have known it, as you and I were raised in it, is what I mean. Now, I have been called -- and I can take it. Pioneers take the arrows, I don't mind what anybody says about me, any time ever. I don't have time for it. I don't give other people the power to offend me. And you shouldn't either, by the wasted time being offended.

I mean, there's some people you can't say you want the President to fail. Ladies and gentlemen of the United States, the Democrat Party has actively not just sought the failure of Republican presidents and policies and now wars for the first time, the Democrat Party doesn't stop at failure. Talk to Judge Robert Bork or Justice Clarence Thomas about how they tried to destroy lives, reputations and character, and I'm supposed to say I don't want the President to fail? We're in for a real battle. We are talking about the United States of America -- and there will always be an America, don't misunderstand me -- we're talking about it remaining the country we were all born into and reared and grown into. And it's under assault. It's always under assault. But it's never been under assault like this from within before. And it's a serious, serious battle.

So as you leave here, as you leave here optimism, confidence, not guilt, it's not worth it. There's nothing to be guilty about. Don't treat people as children. Respect their intelligence. Realize that there's a way to persuade people. Sometimes the worst way is to get in their face and point a finger. Set up a set of circumstances where the conclusion is obvious. Let them think they came up with the idea themselves. They'll think they're smart that they figured it out. Who cares how you persuade them, the fact they can be persuaded is factually correct, it's possible. But the main thing to do here is stop thinking that we are a minority. Stop thinking that it is being in the minority that liberates you. It is your beliefs. It is your core principles, it is your confidence that liberates you. It's not being in the minority.

In fact, for those of you watching my first national address and still hanging in there, we really are not that happy about being a minority and we're out to change it. So I have -- I've gone over my allotted time by an hour.

I want to thank all of you so much for everything that you have meant to me and my family in my life.

I understand it's mutual. And I hear people -- you have made my heart grow so much that it barely fits in my chest cavity here tonight. But the things that by virtue of your listening to my radio show and being active in this movement that we all cherish and love, you have meant more to me, my family and my life than whatever it is I might mean to you, even though I know that's considerable. You still can't outdo the absolute joy and awe and thanks I feel for all of you. I've been doing this for 20 years and the numbers just keep growing. And I can't tell you how appreciative I am and proud to be in a movement with the same passions, desires and core beliefs that all of you have, because we know that it's right for the country, and we know it's right for people. It's not something that has to be forced on them. It's not something that has to be authoritatively pressed on them. We are what is, and that's why we are an enemy because we're effective. The people that do want control look at us as the enemy. We're always going to be -- don't ever measure your success by how many Drive-By Media reports you see that are fair to us. Never going to happen. Don't measure your success by how many people like you. Just worry about how they vote. And then at the end of the day how they live, but that's really none of your business once they close the doors. Thank you all very much. It's been great.

1348 Obama - TimeOutForChocolate

No Barry Bashing today; however, as usual it's a worthy contribution

I'm Still waiting....
I sent the email to 10 people like you said.
I'm still waiting for that miracle to happen


To all my friends who in the last year sent
me best 'wishes', chain letters, 'angel' letters
or other promises of good luck
if I forwarded something.
NONE OF THAT crap WORKED!
For 2009, could you please just send money,
chocolate or gasoline vouchers thank you!

1349 Obama -transcript

CBS's speech transcript (Steve chatting to congress 2009 02 24)

1350 Obama - Speech to congress

Steve spoke to congress last night

1. He is a good speaker.


2. 'Jumping Jack' Pelosi really detracted from the show


3. “The salesman knows nothing of what he is selling save that he is charging a great deal too much for it.” Oscar Wilde




• Eg. In the speech Obama refers to the United States as "the nation that invented the automobile."


• German engineer Karl Benz is credited as the inventor of the internal combustion engine and, in 1885, the world's first modern automobile. Americans are seen as the country that pioneered the mass production of cars.


4. Discovery Channel (D.C.) syndrome




• Washington D.C. (coincidence?) Both TV DC and El Honcho Grande in DC don't even acknowledge that there are two sides to man made global weather.


• Here's Steve last night - "To truly transform our economy, protect our security, and save our planet from the ravages of climate change, we need to ultimately make clean, renewable energy the profitable kind of energy, I ask this Congress to send me legislation that places a market-based cap on carbon pollution and drives the production of more renewable energy in America."


• Notice that its now 'climate change'. Good ole Gore started things out with 'global cooling' and when that didn't work, he came out with the 'global warming' kick. Now its 'climate change'.


• Just like 'saving jobs', Steve can't go wrong with 'climate change' because, thanks to the sun, the globe will have climate change


• Sad part is, he may very well break the global bank.

1351 Obama - Right Handed ??

The president inherited a deficit for 2009 of about $1.2 trillion, which will rise to more than $1.5 trillion, given initial spending from his recently enacted stimulus package. Steve signed Stimulus Feb 17, 2009

"If we confront this crisis without also confronting the deficits that helped cause it, we risk sinking into another crisis down the road. We cannot simply spend as we please and defer the consequences" Steve. Feb 23, 2009

Maybe it just dawned on him. Oh, by the way if Steve miraculously gets deficit to $½ trillion in 2010 instead of 2013, US debt increases from $10.6 trillion to $12.6 trillion. Hmm? why not go for the debt instead of the deficit?

New scenario. Brings "media in tank for Obama" a whole new meaning. They're using mirrors (he's really in left mind)

Denver Feb. 17, 2009 A.R.R.A signing

Dec. 2008, Hawaii

1352 Obama - Jindal No like Strings

from Indain Express

Lots of strings attached to the CRAP bill (which of course wasn't allowed to be read before the vote - but I digress)

• Washington: Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has announced that he will decline stimulus money specifically targeted at expanding state unemployment insurance coverage, becoming the first state executive to officially refuse any part of the federal government’s payout to states.
• In a statement, Jindal, who is slated to give the Republican response to President Barack Obama’s message to Congress on Tuesday, expressed concern that expanding unemployment insurance coverage would lead to increased unemployment insurance taxes later on, Politico.com reported.
• “The federal money in this bill will run out in less than three years for this benefit and our businesses would then be stuck paying the bill,” Jindal said.
• “We must be careful and thoughtful as we examine all the strings attached to the funding in this package. We cannot grow Government in an unsustainable way.”
• Jindal is one of a small group of Republican governors, which includes South Carolina’s Mark Sanford and Mississippi’s Haley Barbour, who have said they might refuse some or all of the stimulus money targeted to their states.

1355 Obama - Illusionist (R.A.T.)

Steve, the ultimate illusionist. We thought some stimulust provisions

• polar-bear exhibit
• an antiprostitution program
• water-park ride

were egregious. But, alas, that was just part of the shell game (divide and conquer). So why did we fly senator Sherrod Brown (Ohio) back and forth to his mother's funeral to sign ARRA on friday; and, then Steve didn't sign it until Tuesday in a dog and pony show in Denver? Its because the above pork examples were a diversion from the bad stuff.

• Socialist health care (see prior post)
• R.A.T. Board
• SEC. 1221. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE ACCOUNTABILITY AND TRANSPARENCY BOARD.
• There is established a board to be known as the ‘Recovery Act Accountability and Transparency Board (hereafter in this subtitle referred to as the ‘Board’)
• In the name of accountability and transparency, Congress has given the RAT Board the authority to ask “that an inspector general conduct or refrain from conducting an audit or investigation.”
• Inspectors General have traditionally had the independence conduct investigations without interference from the White House, Congress or the Department of Justice… Now, thanks to the RAT Board their investigations can be subjected to whims of partisan politics.

1356 Obama - Go Pope

How about this for a change Steve:

Let's run the congress like the Vatican

We can start by excommunicating Pelosi

• Pope Benedict XVI met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a pro-abortion rights Democrat, at the Vatican Wednesday.


• Following the 15-minute meeting, the Vatican released a statement calling on Catholic legislators – such as Pelosi – to work to end abortion.


• "His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of the natural moral law and the Church's consistent teaching on the dignity of human life from conception to natural death which enjoin all Catholics, and especially legislators, jurists and those responsible for the common good of society, to work in cooperation with all men and women of good will in creating a just system of laws capable of protecting human life at all stages of its development," the statement said.


• Catholics on both sides of the abortion debate saw Pelosi's visit as an attempt to legitimize her own brand of Catholicism - "ardent" but pro-abortion rights, The Hill reported.


• Pope Benedict XVI is a conservative theologian who had called secularization and denial of moral truths "the central problem of the 21st century." He has supported the excommunication of pro-abortion Catholic politicians in Mexico City.

1358 Obama - C.R.A.P. Stinks

Obama's CRAP stinks

• On February 10, in Fort Myers, Florida, Steve said
• "When the town is burning, .... Everybody needs to grab a hose."
• John Karch, Americans for Tax Reform says
• "The government cannot put into the economy what it first did not take out of the economy. That would be like scooping up water from one side of a lake, dumping the water into the other side of the lake, and announcing that you’ve just filled the lake."
• So back to Steve's satement:
• We've all got our hoses but he's making us squirt the water into the river so that it gets to the ocean and comes back as rain to douse the fire.
  

1359 Obama craps in Colorado

Just like Obama has many nicknames, so does his stimulus plan. Actually, 'stimulus' is a nickname for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Other nicknames: ARRA, porkulus, and of course Mike Huckabee's contribution:

• Congressional
• Relief
• Action
• Plan

To rub salt in this blogger's wounds

• President Barack Obama will sign the $787 billion federal stimulus package into law in Denver on Tuesday.
• Obama will sign the bill Tuesday at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

1362 Obama - More Girls (Alex & Meg)

Alexandra Pelosi

• Could be the only thing her Mom (Nancy) got half way right
• Sure, she's still a bleeding heart liberal but she has a sense of humor
• In 2000, Pelosi worked as a network television producer for NBC covering George W. Bush's presidential campaign
• In 2008, she followed the McCain campaign as part of the production of another film, Right America: Feeling Wronged, which is set to premier on HBO on President's Day 2009.

Meg Whitman

• Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman, 52, a billionaire Republican businesswoman who built the online marketplace into a household name, now is looking to tackle the considerable financial problems of the Golden State: She has announced an exploratory committee to make a 2010 run for governor.
• Whitman's campaign - its motto is "A New California" - will have some high-profile help: former Gov. Pete Wilson; U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, the House chief deputy minority whip; and U.S. Rep. Mary Bono of Palm Springs will serve as co-chairs.
• McCain mentioned Whitman as a possible Secretary of the Treasury during the second debate in 2008
• I'm not sure of her taxes; but its for sure and for certain that Steve's Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, is a tax cheat

1363 Obama - GJ's Laura Bradford

Conservative TV host Bill O’Reilly named state Rep. Laura Bradford, R-Collbran, a “patriot” Wednesday night for her efforts to toughen sentences for sex offenders that target children.

Bradford's bill requires judges to impose a minimum sentence of at least 20 butnot more than 30 years of lock up on an offender who commits asexual assault against a child who is 14 years of age or younger and seven ormore years younger than the offender at the time of the offense.

Rep. Laura Bradford is scheduled to appear tonight on Bill O'Reilly's show to talk about her child molester bill. The Mesa County lawmaker is scheduled to appear at 6:50 p.m.

1364 Obama - Drug Dealer

Steve's drug of choice - BIG GUVMN'T

Yesterday in Ft. Myers Florida

• Henrietta Hughes wants new house, new car, new kitchen


• Steve says you bet, I'm from the government and I'm here to help you


• Julio Osegueda wants more benefits


• Steve says here since you don't pay taxes, I'll give you a 'tax refund' paid buy some sucker who does pay taxes and Oh, by the way here's some 'free' health care paid buy some sucker who does pay taxes

1365 Obama - Saved & Health

Steve's goal 4 million SAVED or new jobs:

• Well you can count new jobs; BUT you sure as hell can't count SAVED jobs.


• So does that mean his goal is unobtainable OR he's already obained it?
  

from Bloomberg
The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.

But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”

Keeping doctors informed of the newest medical findings is important, but enforcing uniformity goes too far.

New Penalties

Hospitals and doctors that are not “meaningful users” of the new system will face penalties. “Meaningful user” isn’t defined in the bill. That will be left to the HHS secretary, who will be empowered to impose “more stringent measures of meaningful use over time” (511, 518, 540-541)

What penalties will deter your doctor from going beyond the electronically delivered protocols when your condition is atypical or you need an experimental treatment? The vagueness is intentional. In his book, Daschle proposed an appointed body with vast powers to make the “tough” decisions elected politicians won’t make.

The stimulus bill does that, and calls it the Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research (190-192). The goal, Daschle’s book explained, is to slow the development and use of new medications and technologies because they are driving up costs. He praises Europeans for being more willing to accept “hopeless diagnoses” and “forgo experimental treatments,” and he chastises Americans for expecting too much from the health-care system.

Elderly Hardest Hit
Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.

1369 Obama - America never recovers

from Glenn Beck 2/5/2009
I am amazed at the comment today from Barack Obama that if we don't pass this stimulus bill right now, the recession may prove to be irreversible, that America may never recover from our inaction right now. That is -- wow, that's incredible. He said this recession may linger for years, our economy will lose five million more jobs. You know what this is? This is really a hedge because he can say, "Well, I didn't get my stimulus bill, I didn't get everything in my stimulus bill that I wanted," as this thing lingers for years, if it doesn't get much, much worse. He said unemployment will approach double digits. Yes. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that at some point we may not be able to reverse. He's calling this the action Americans need. He says that energy independence is one of the reasons that we have to pass the stimulus bill quickly. Energy independence. Less than 24 hours after his new interior secretary cancelled the oil and gas leases on 77 parcels of federal land, more than 130,000
acres in Utah alone.

• we're never going to recover if we don't get the $50 million for the National Endowment For the Arts
• we may never recover if we don't get $380 million in the Senate bill for the Women, Infants and Children's program
• we may never recover if we don't get $300 million for grants to combat violence against women
• we may never recover if we don't have $6 billion for university building project
• we may never recover if we don't have $1.2 billion to provide youth summer jobs and this bill defines "Youth" to people up to the age of 24
• we will never recover if we don't have $2.4 billion for neighborhood stabilization activities.
• we may never recover if we don't have $650 million for digital TV coupons.
• we may never recover if we don't get $150 million for the Smithsonian. We may never recover if we don't have $34 million to renovate the Department of Commerce headquarters.
• we may never recover if we don't have $500 million for the improvement projects for the national institute of health facilities.
• we may never recover if we don't have $44 million for repairs to the Department of Agriculture headquarters or $350 million for agriculture department computers.
• we may never recover if we don't have $88 million to help move the Public Health Service into a new building, not for a new building. To help them move to a new building. We may never survive if we don't have that $88 million for a moving truck!
• we may never survive if we don't have the money to convert federal auto fleets to hybrids. this country may never recover if we don't have a billion dollars for the census bureau.
• we may never recover if we don't have $89 billion for Medicaid or $30 billion for COBRA extensions or $36 billion for expanded unemployment or $20 billion for more food stamps
• we may never recover if we don't have $850 million for Amtrak, a train that hasn't turned a profit in 50 years
• America as we know it may never recover if we don't have $87 million for a polar ice breaking ship let's not look too deeply into why we would need a polar ice breaking ship if the poles are melting and won't have any ice!
• we may never recover if we don't have $1.7 million for the national park system or $55 million for the historic preservation fund.
• we may not survive if we don't have $7.6 million for the rural advancement program or $150 million for the agriculture commodity purposes or $150 million for producers of livestock, farm-raised fish and honeybees
• we may never recover unless we have $160 million for paid volunteers at the Corporation for National and Community Service for the community volunteers, the National -- wait a minute. Why are we paying the volunteers?

Nancy Pelosi (second in line to the the presidency) is "dumber than soap"

• She says US will lose 500,000,000 jobs without this 'porkulus' bill
• or maybe she just spilled the beans (ie. the US population isn't what is reported but we have a whole lot more illegal immigrants than we thought

1371 Obama - Rape --> Murder\Suicide

note to Steve: there is evil out there
from news.com.us
Iraqi woman had 80 women raped then recruited as suicide bombers

• A WOMAN suspected of recruiting more than 80 female suicide bombers has confessed to organising their rapes so she could later convince them that martyrdom was the only way to escape the shame.
• Samira Jassam, 51, was arrested by Iraqi police and confessed to recruiting the women and orchestrating dozens of attacks.
• In a video confession, she explained how she had mentally prepared the women for martyrdom operations, passed them on to terrorists who provided explosives, and then took the bombers to their targets.
• "We arrested Samira Jassim, known as 'Um al-Mumenin', the mother of the believers, who was responsible for recruiting 80 women'', Major General Qassim Atta said.
• "She confessed her responsibility for these actions, and she confirmed that 28 attempts had been made in one of the terrorists' strongholds,'' he said.
• Samira Jassim was arrested on January 21. She is allegedly linked to the Ansar al-Sunnah insurgent group.
• Two of the attacks for which Samira Jassim admitted responsibility in the video confession took place in Diyala province, in central Iraq, which is considered one of the most dangerous areas of the country.
• The Associated Press reports US military figures indicate at least 36 female suicide bombers attempted or carried out 32 attacks last year. Women are often allowed through military checkpoints without being searched, making it easier for them to hide explosives under their traditional robes.

1372 Obama - Stimulus definition

from where Nations Go to Die by Mark Steyn on National Review Online

“Stimulus” comes from the verb stimulare, which is Latin for “transfer massive sums of money from what remains of the dynamic sector of the economy to the special interests of the Democratic party.” No, hang on, my mistake. Stimulare means “to goad.” And, on that front, the Democrats are doing an excellent job. They’ve managed to goad 58 percent of the American people into opposing the “stimulus” package. They’ve managed to goad all 177 Republicans in the House into unpacking their mothballed cojones and voting against the bill. And they’ve managed to goad the rest of the world into ending the Obama honeymoon in nothing flat. Headline from the London Daily Telegraph: “US-EU Trade War Looms As Barack Obama Bill Urges ‘Buy American.’ ”

That would be the provision in the Senate bill prohibiting any foreign-made goods from being used in “stimulus” projects. So, if you own a rubber plantation in Malaysia and you’re hoping for a piece of Nancy Pelosi’s condom action, forget it. The EU trade commissioner is outraged at the swaggering cowboy Obama shooting from the hip and unilaterally banning European goods from American soil. But so are American companies such as General Electric. Bill Lane, an executive honcho with Caterpillar (the tenth biggest U.S. investor in the United Kingdom), says, “We are students of history. A major reason a very deep recession turned into the Great Depression was the fact that countries turned inward.” Ah, yes. The Buy American Act of 1933. How’d that work out?

1373 Obama - Snubbed by SB XLIII

Ad Snubbed by Super Bowl XLIII (see YTUBE)

This childs future is a broken home

He will be abandoned by his father

his single mother will struggle to raise him

despite the hardships, he will endure

this child

The first African American President

1376 Obama - Great Society

excerpt form Glenn Beck show 20090130
stimulus plan???????
Mayor Giuliani:
Lyndon Johnson would have called it Great Society II. This is expanding Medicaid. It's expanding Government control of health care records. It's expanding the number of people that are on Government health care that are getting private insurance. It's a tremendous amount of money going into the teachers unions, a tremendous amount of money going into the health care industry. It's spending on keeping us, you know, greener or getting us greener. These are all things that arguably are good or bad social results. They have very little to do with stimulating an economy. I ran a city that was in roughly the same shape in 1994 when I took it over as it is today. In fact, in 1994, unemployment was higher than it is today by a lot and our budget deficit as a percentage of the budget was even worse and I got New York City out of trouble. I didn't invent the method, but it's the only way to get a government our trouble. Here's how I did it, again, I lowered spending by an enormous amount and I lowered taxes that by lowering them would put more money in the economy. This is going in exactly the wrong direction.

1377 Obama - Don't Waste the Crisis

WSJ article 20090128
"Never let a serious crisis go to waste. What I mean by that is it's an opportunity to do things you couldn't do before."

• So said White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel in November, and Democrats in Congress are certainly taking his advice to heart. The 647-page, $825 billion House legislation is being sold as an economic "stimulus," but now that Democrats have finally released the details we understand Rahm's point much better. This is a political wonder that manages to spend money on just about every pent-up Democratic proposal of the last 40 years.
• We've looked it over, and even we can't quite believe it. There's $1 billion for Amtrak, the federal railroad that hasn't turned a profit in 40 years; $2 billion for child-care subsidies; $50 million for that great engine of job creation, the National Endowment for the Arts; $400 million for global-warming research and another $2.4 billion for carbon-capture demonstration projects. There's even $650 million on top of the billions already doled out to pay for digital TV conversion coupons.
• In selling the plan, President Obama has said this bill will make "dramatic investments to revive our flagging economy." Well, you be the judge. Some $30 billion, or less than 5% of the spending in the bill, is for fixing bridges or other highway projects. There's another $40 billion for broadband and electric grid development, airports and clean water projects that are arguably worthwhile priorities.
• Add the roughly $20 billion for business tax cuts, and by our estimate only $90 billion out of $825 billion, or about 12 cents of every $1, is for something that can plausibly be considered a growth stimulus. And even many of these projects aren't likely to help the economy immediately. As Peter Orszag, the President's new budget director, told Congress a year ago, "even those [public works] that are 'on the shelf' generally cannot be undertaken quickly enough to provide timely stimulus to the economy."

1378 Obama - FAIRNESS ??!!

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has launched an expressing outrage at conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh for saying he wanted President Obama to "fail."

The petition comes after Obama warned Republicans on Capitol Hill Friday that they need to quit listening to Limbaugh if they want to get along with Democrats and the new administration.

"I think [Obama] wants me to fail," Limbaugh said. "He's more frightened of me than he is of John Boehner, which doesn't say much for our party."

• Here comes the so called 'fairness' doctrine
• Dems are running scared because they know it works
• they wanted Bush to fail for eight years and with 'drive by' national media on their side it apparently worked
• and since it works, get rid of conservative radio who almost all (not just Rush) want is Steve's horrifying socialist policies to fail. And they think that will keep them in power a little longer.
• But just remember: We're the ones who stick to our bibles and guns
• Amazing things you can learn on conservative radio
• cook turkey in a dishwasher
• POTUS = president of the United States

1380 Obama - Silence Rush

from NY Post 1/23/09
WASHINGTON -- President Obama warned Republicans on Capitol Hill today that they need to quit listening to radio king Rush Limbaugh if they want to get along with Democrats and the new administration.

"You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get things done," he told top GOP leaders, whom he had invited to the White House to discuss his nearly $1 trillion stimulus package.

One White House official confirmed the comment but said he was simply trying to make a larger point about bipartisan efforts.

"There are big things that unify Republicans and Democrats," the official said. "We shouldn't let partisan politics derail what are very important things that need to get done."

That wasn't Obama's only jab at Republicans today.

In an exchange with Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) about the proposal, the president shot back: "I won," according to aides briefed on the meeting.

"I will trump you on that."

Not that Obama was gloating. He was just explaining that he aims to get his way on stimulus package and all other legislation, sources said, noting his unrivaled one-party control of both congressional chambers.

"We are experiencing an unprecedented economic crisis that has to be dealt with and dealt with rapidly," Obama said during the meeting.
Republicans say the $825 billion price tag is too big a burden for a nation crippled by debt and that it doesn't do enough to stimulate the economy by cutting taxes.

"You know, I'm concerned about the size of the package. And I'm concerned about some of the spending that's in there, [about] ... how you can spend hundreds of millions on contraceptives," House GOP Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) later said.

"How does that stimulate the economy?"

But White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs countered: "There was a lot of agreement in that room about the notion that we're facing an economic crisis unlike we've seen in quite some time ... that we must act quickly to stimulate the economy, create jobs, put money back in people's pockets."

Gibbs disagreed with those who called the meeting window dressing.

"The president is certainly going to listen to any ideas," he said.

"He will also go to Capitol Hill the beginning of next week to talk to Republican caucuses and solicit their input and their ideas."

A few chosen comments:
Nick C1969 wrote:
Obama's idea of bipartisanship is the same as the Muslim definition of peace: submission and surrender to the will of God.

dbs313 wrote:
Nobama pi$$ed off the pope too, with his funding world wide abortion spectacle, oh... i mean Executive Order. The Vatican said he's arrogant. Ya Think?.. So now he's pi$$ed off a bunch of Catholics. Disenfranchises rush fans one day, a whole bunch of Catholics the next day. I wonder who's next. Gun Owners?

ladyceo wrote:
Zero telling us who to listen to on the radio??? Yes, this is just the beginning.Yes, it will be 'his way or the highway'.And the highway is socialism. He DID say he was open to ideas. He just didn't say he'd USE any of those ideas.Yes, government IS the problem.Right on Rush!

Marxist Messiah wrote:
Yesterday we had friends over for dinner. Of course the Obama friends were talking about how "we" the losers had to get onboard with the new policies.

My wife, very quietly, said " There are 50 people getting on a bus. There is no driver, so they pick one of the people to drive, because he says he knows how to get us to where we we need to be. While he's driving , some of the people realize he's acting erratically, stumbling over his lines, swearing in twice when once will suffice, ranting about Radio personalities rather than focusing on the enormous issues at hand, talking about silencing free speech, talking about infringing on basic rights like the 1st and 2nd amendments, acting intoxicated, possibly cocaine, crack or maybe just with power. He is driving erratically and endangering the lives of everyone on the bus. Do these passengers have a right to speak up??? What if this driver turns around and says "Shut Up"!!!" There was silence at our dinner table.

Shades of Gray wrote:
I don't listen to Rush, Hannity or Oriely but I don't want their voices silenced. To do so is socialism, communism, government controlled media, not good for freedom of speech or just freedom. We need voices of dissent. We need balance in the Media, not government controlled, sponsored media. If our current government wants to silence them, maybe I should start listening/watching. I have grandchildren whom I need to protect. I want to make sure they experience all sides of the political equation, to make up their own minds.

1383 Obama - Gillibrand

Slick Hilly's old job:

Jan. 23 (Bloomberg) -- New York Governor David Paterson has selected Congresswoman Kirsten Gillibrand to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Hillary Clinton, the New York Times reported.
The governor plans to announce his decision in Albany this afternoon, the newspaper said. An aide to Gillibrand confirmed that she had accepted the appointment, the Times added.

• Gillibrand is a member of the Blue Dog Coalition. She opposes gun control. She supports extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for middle class families; stem cell research; and the Children's Health and Medicare Protection Act. Gillibrand opposes attempts to partially privatize Social Security. She strongly supported passage of the 2008 Farm Bill. Gillibrand broke with former Governor Eliot Spitzer on the issue of illegal immigration, opposing his plan to issue New York State drivers licenses to illegal immigrants. She supports same-sex marriage.
• “I come from a hunting family,” said Gillibrand, after noting that her mother shoots the Thanksgiving turkey almost every year. Last fall, Gillibrand said, her mother “got a turkey” and “got a deer.” According to Gillibrand, her mother “was on her rifle team in college” and is “the best shot in our family.”
• “We appreciate hunting rights in our family,” Gillibrand said, declaring herself “very pro Second Amendment.”
• “In upstate New York, we have a very rich culture in hunting, and I think hunting rights are very important,” Gillibrand said.
• okey-dokey
• not so okey-dokey

1384 Obama - blackberry

It looks like Steve (Honest Ob) will get to keep his blackberry after all.
From PC World:

• Barack Obama was determined to take his Blackberry into the White House and it appears he's done it. On Monday, a government agency added a "super-encryption package" to a standard Blackberry, according to reports. It has yet to be confirmed whether the device is in fact for Obama or if he even has it yet. Bureaucrats were reluctant to approve the device for the new President, because of numerous security concerns including information leaks and the ability to get a lock on the President's location. It seems those problems may have been solved.

God calls us and now we can call the president at: OU+

1385 Obama - Inaguration speech

Steve's speach below

• 2,401 words
• 13 'can's
• 6 'cannot's
• 20 'but's
• 1 'change's
• 3 'hope's

Worrisome excerpts

• specter of a warming planet
• giving our all

My fellow citizens:

I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [1]

Forty-four Americans have now taken the presidential oath. The words have been spoken during rising tides of prosperity and the still waters of peace. Yet, every so often the oath is taken amidst gathering clouds and raging storms. At these moments, America has carried on not simply because of the skill or vision of those in high office, but because We the People have remained faithful to the ideals of our forbearers, and true to our founding documents.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [2]

So it has been. So it must be with this generation of Americans.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [3]

That we are in the midst of crisis is now well understood. Our nation is at war, against a far-reaching network of violence and hatred. Our economy is badly weakened, a consequence of greed and irresponsibility on the part of some, but also our collective failure to make hard choices and prepare the nation for a new age. Homes have been lost; jobs shed; businesses shuttered. Our health care is too costly; our schools fail too many; and each day brings further evidence that the ways we use energy strengthen our adversaries and threaten our planet.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [4]

These are the indicators of crisis, subject to data and statistics. Less measurable but no less profound is a sapping of confidence across our land — a nagging fear that America's decline is inevitable, and that the next generation must lower its sights.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [5]

Today I say to you that the challenges we face are real. They are serious and they are many. They will not be met easily or in a short span of time. But know this, America — they will be met.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [6]

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [7]

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [8]

We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things. The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation: the God-given promise that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [9]

In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. Our journey has never been one of short-cuts or settling for less. It has not been the path for the faint-hearted — for those who prefer leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame. Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things — some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path toward prosperity and freedom.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [10]

For us, they packed up their few worldly possessions and traveled across oceans in search of a new life.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [11]

For us, they toiled in sweatshops and settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard earth.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [12]

For us, they fought and died, in places like Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [13]

Time and again these men and women struggled and sacrificed and worked till their hands were raw so that we might live a better life. They saw America as bigger than the sum of our individual ambitions; greater than all the differences of birth or wealth or faction.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [14]

This is the journey we continue today. We remain the most prosperous, powerful nation on Earth. Our workers are no less productive than when this crisis began. Our minds are no less inventive, our goods and services no less needed than they were last week or last month or last year. Our capacity remains undiminished. But our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed. Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [15]

For everywhere we look, there is work to be done. The state of the economy calls for action, bold and swift, and we will act — not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [16]

Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short. For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [17]

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account — to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day — because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [18]

Nor is the question before us whether the market is a force for good or ill. Its power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched, but this crisis has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control - and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart — not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [19]

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience's sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: Know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [20]

Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions. They understood that our power alone cannot protect us, nor does it entitle us to do as we please. Instead, they knew that our power grows through its prudent use; our security emanates from the justness of our cause, the force of our example, the tempering qualities of humility and restraint.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [21]

We are the keepers of this legacy. Guided by these principles once more, we can meet those new threats that demand even greater effort — even greater cooperation and understanding between nations. We will begin to responsibly leave Iraq to its people and forge a hard-earned peace in Afghanistan. With old friends and former foes, we will work tirelessly to lessen the nuclear threat and roll back the specter of a warming planet. We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents, we say to you now that our spirit is stronger and cannot be broken; you cannot outlast us, and we will defeat you.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [22]

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness. We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus — and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08

To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect. To those leaders around the globe who seek to sow conflict or blame their society's ills on the West — know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08

To the people of poor nations, we pledge to work alongside you to make your farms flourish and let clean waters flow; to nourish starved bodies and feed hungry minds. And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect. For the world has changed, and we must change with it.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08

As we consider the road that unfolds before us, we remember with humble gratitude those brave Americans who, at this very hour, patrol far-off deserts and distant mountains. They have something to tell us today, just as the fallen heroes who lie in Arlington whisper through the ages. We honor them not only because they are guardians of our liberty, but because they embody the spirit of service; a willingness to find meaning in something greater than themselves. And yet, at this moment — a moment that will define a generation — it is precisely this spirit that must inhabit us all.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08

For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [28]

This is the price and the promise of citizenship.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08

This is the source of our confidence — the knowledge that God calls on us to shape an uncertain destiny.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [30]

This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed — why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent mall, and why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [31]

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [32]

"Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive ... that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [33]

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations. Thank you. God bless you and God bless the United States of America.
BHO inaguration speach 1/20/08 [34]

1386 Obama - Inaguration day (Lincoln)

Steve’s inauguration theme is Abraham Lincoln. So here’s some of his quotes and who they might fit with on this day:

1. "I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong."
   this blooger


2. "I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end... I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me."
   George Walker Bush


3. "I hope to stand firm enough to not go backward, and yet not go forward fast enough to wreck the country's cause."
   Steve


4. "If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six hours sharpening my ax."
   republican party


5. "If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business."
   George Walker Bush


6. "I care not much for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it. "
   this blogger's sister
   
7. "If you call a tail a leg, how many legs has a dog? Five? No, calling a tail a leg don't make it a leg".
   liberal constitution interpreters


8. "Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties."
   this blogger


9. "If I were two-faced, would I be wearing this one? "
   Nancy Pelosi


10. "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt."
    Barney Frank


11. "This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or exercise their revolutionary right to overthrow it."
    clingers of rifles and bibles


12. "When you have got an elephant by the hind legs and he is trying to run away, it's best to let him run."
    wishful thinking

1387 Obama - Bill of Rights I

On January 20 Mr. Obama will say:

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Amendment 1

• Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

1390 Obama - NY Miracle

What's with NY and Miracles?

• 34th street
• Hudson River
• Except for a tirade on airlines hiring cross dressers in the name of diversity, Even Michael Savage was a pussy cat concerning the miracle on the river.

1390 Obama - Bill of Rights II

On January 20 Mr. Obama will say:


"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."
Amendment 2

• A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, theright of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

1391 Obama - Bill of Rights III

On January 20 Mr. Obama will say:

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Amendment 3

• No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without theconsent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed bylaw.

1392 Obama - Bill of Rights IV

On January 20 Mr. Obama will say:

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Amendment 4

• The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, andeffects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, andno Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath oraffirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and thepersons or things to be seized.

1393 Obama - Bill of Rights V

On January 20 Mr. Obama will say:

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Amendment 5

• No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime,unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arisingin the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in timeof War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offenseto be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in anycriminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life,liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property betaken for public use, without just compensation.

1394 Obama - Bill of Rights VI

On January 20 Mr. Obama will say:

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Amendment 6

• In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy andpublic trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crimeshall have been committed, which district shall have been previouslyascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of theaccusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsoryprocess for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance ofCounsel for his defence.
  

1397 Obama - Bill of Rights VII

On January 20 Mr. Obama will say:

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Amendment 7

• In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

1398 Obama - Debt

On January 20 Mr. Obama will inherit $10.65 trillion US debt.

• The U.S. debt is 10.6 trillion dollars. A $1,000 dollar stack of 1$ bills is 4 1/3 inches high. Start stacking the U.S. debt in 1$ bills, you could start on the moon, stack 'em to the earth, keep stacking back to the moon then stack back to earth, then stack em from Denver, Colorado to Sydney, Australia and you'd still have $20 billion chump change left over. Of course, you might need the 20 billion cause if you stacked 'em at the rate of $1,000 per second, it would still take you 337 years.
  

1398 Obama - Bill of Rights VIII

On January 20 Mr. Obama will say:

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Amendment 8

• Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

1399 Obama - Bill of Rights IX

On January 20 Mr. Obama will say:

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Amendment 9

• The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construedto deny or disparage others retained by the people.

1400 Obama - Bill of Rights X

On January 20 Mr. Obama will say:

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Amendment 10

• The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, norprohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or tothe people.

1401 Obama - Bill of Rights

On January 20 Mr. Obama will say:

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

In the United States, the Bill of Rights is the name by which the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution are known. The Bill of Rights protects freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to keep and bear arms, the freedom of assembly, the freedom to petition, and freedom of the press. It also prohibits unreasonable search and seizure, cruel and unusual punishment, and compelled self-incrimination. The Bill of Rights also prohibits Congress from making any law respecting establishment of religion and prohibits the federal government from depriving any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law. In federal criminal cases, it requires indictment by grand jury for any capital or "infamous crime", guarantees a speedy public trial with an impartial jury composed of members of the state or judicial district in which the crime occurred, and prohibits double jeopardy. In addition, the Bill of Rights states that "the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people," and reserves all powers not granted to the federal government to the citizenry or States. Most of these restrictions were later applied to the states by a series of decisions applying the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which was ratified in 1868, after the American Civil War.

1406 Obama - 1's and 10's

2008 WAS 1 LOOOOOONG YEAR !
NOT ONLY DID WE HAVE 1 EXTRA DAY (FEB 29)
BUT THEY'RE GONNA ADD 1 SECOND TONIGHT

(noto bene - the #9 earmark)

RADIO FREE EUROPE TOP 10 NEWS

1. Global Financial Crisis


2. Barack Obama Elected 44th U.S. President


3. Russia-Georgia War


4. Kosovo Declares Independence


5. Russia's Change In Leadership


6. Terrorist Attacks In Mumbai, India


7. Growing Violence, Resurgence Of Taliban In Afghanistan


8. Food Prices Rise, Pushing Millions Into Hunger


9. China Hosts Summer Olympics


10. Radovan Karadzic Extradited To The Hague

TIMES TOP 10 POLITICAL QUOTES

1. If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer." —President-elect Barack Obama, delivering his Election Night victory speech in Chicago


2. "Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that." — Sen. John McCain, delivering his Election Night concession speech in Phoenix


3. "Our opponent ... is someone who sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect, imperfect enough, that he's palling around with terrorists who would target their own country." —Gov. Sarah Palin


4. "Senator Obama, I am not President Bush. If you wanted to run against President Bush, you should have run four years ago." —Sen. John McCain to Sen. Barack Obama during the third and final presidential debate


5. The old boys' network? In the McCain campaign, that's called a staff meeting." —Barack Obama, about John McCain, in Elko, Nevada


6. "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a 'community organizer,' except that you have actual responsibilities." —Gov. Sarah Palin at the Republican National Convention


7. "I have so many opportunities from this country. I just don't want to see us fall backwards." —Sen. Hillary Clinton, while tearing up in New Hampshire


8. "I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother...." —Sen. Barack Obama, referring to his former pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright


9. Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer's no, that's not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?" —Gen. Colin Powell, referring to the false rumors about Obama's faith, while endorsing the Democratic Presidential nominee on NBC's Meet the Press


10. When I got knocked down by guys bigger than me — and this is the God's truth — she sent me back out and said, 'Bloody their nose so you can walk down the street the next day.' And that's what I did." —Sen. Joe Biden, Democratic National Convention

TIMES TOP 10 OUTRAGEOUS EARMARKS

1. $2 Million for Children's Wooden Arrow Makers


2. $1.9 million for the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service


3. $1 Million for New York Woodstock Museum


4. $192 Million for U.S. Territories' Rum Industries


5. $188,000 for the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine


6. $98,000 to Develop a Walking Tour of Boydton, Virginia


7. $50,000 for the National Mule and Packers Museum in Bishop, California


8. $583,000 for the Montana World Trade Center


9. $460,752 for Beer Ingredient


10. $150,000 for "Rat Island"

YAHOO TOP 10 SEARCHES

1. Britney Spears


2. WWE


3. Barack Obama


4. Miley Cyrus


5. RuneScape


6. Jessica Alba


7. Naruto


8. Lindsay Lohan


9. Angelina Jolie


10. American Idol

JIBJAB YEAR IN REVIEW

1407 Obama - Senate replacement

Blagojevich picks former Illinois AG Roland Burris to fill Obama's Senate seat, even as Senate Dems vow to block the appointment.

• I don't get it
• Even if Burris thinks Blago is as pure as the driven snow, why would he accept the appointment? Since 99% of America thinks Blago is a crook, wouldn't that lead to 90%+ of America to think Burris is a crook. And reality is nine-tenths perception.

1407 Obama - 130 ObamaKennedy

Caroline Kennedy, You Know, Might Need, You Know, A Speech Coach, Um, If She, You Know, Wants, Um, To Be Senator

When checking this out

• Transcripts of her interviews with other media outlets showed the same problem. She said "you know" at least 130 times to The New York Times


• "In the Illinois state Senate, Senator Obama voted 130 times 'present.' That's not yes, that's not no. That's maybe," Hillary Rodham Clinton said in a debate Monday.


• COINCIDENCE?????
  
  

1411 Obama - Golf swing

Can it be true? Steve is in his RIGHT mind !!

CHRISTMAS

A letter from Paul to Titus. (2:11-14) For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works.

1413 Obama - Beer O nomics

SPEAKING OF BEER
Halloween connections???

Bar Stool Economics by David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

• The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
• The fifth would pay $1.
• The sixth would pay $3.
• The seventh would pay $7.
• The eighth would pay $12.
• The ninth would pay $18.
• The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that’s what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. ‘Since you are all such good customers, he said, ‘I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

And so:

• The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
• The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
• The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
• The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
• The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
• The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

‘I only got a dollar out of the $20,’declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,’ but he got $10!’

‘Yeah, that’s right,’ exclaimed the fifth man. ‘I only saved a dollar, too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more than I!’

‘That’s true!!’ shouted the seventh man. ‘Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!’

‘Wait a minute,’ yelled the first four men in unison. ‘We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!’

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

1414 Obama - Beer & Golf

STEVE SEEMS TO BE INTO BEER AND GOLF
BOTH USED FOR BUSINESS (POLITICAL?) DEALS


From CNN Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry:

HONOLULU (CNN) – Many Republicans already believe President-elect Barack Obama has gotten a free ride from the national media, so they may not be happy to learn the incoming Commander-in-Chief offered to buy a round of drinks for reporters covering his working vacation on the sands of Hawaii's beaches and the greens of its lush golf courses.

Halfway through a round of golf on Sunday afternoon, Obama rolled up to the snack bar in his golf cart to find a small pool of reporters waiting to get more pictures of him enjoying a leisurely day. No doubt realizing these might not be the best images at a time of recession, Obama suggested the reporters seek some other recreation to pass the time — rather than snapping so many pics.

"Obama then told us we should be in the clubhouse at the bar having some beers," according to a pool report by Jamie Farnsworth of CBS News. "Someone asked if he would pick up the tab and he agreed before driving off to the next hole. Pool is still holding without beer.

In a separate pool report for print journalists, Jeff Zeleny of The New York Times added helpfully: "He chatted for a moment, telling the pool to have a beer and put it on his tab. No one took him up on the offer."

Aha! So the key here is reporters covering the President-elect are having more fun here in Hawaii than we had in Crawford, Texas — and 85 degrees in the middle of the afternoon here is way better than the cold winds blowing through Chicago too. But none of the journalists were corrupted by free beer — we pay our own tabs.

And just for the record: your faithful correspondent, while enjoying the wonders of Waikiki beach, never drinks — at least not on the job.

Sean Hannity

Oct. 23 2008 "Is Sean Hannity suddenly going to get on the air waves and say 'You know, I was wrong about this Obama guy, he's my man.' No, that's not going to happen. I mean's there's going to be a certain wing of the Republican Party that is, you know, dug in and resistant to the notion that we need to change direction." B. Obama

Oct. 30 2008 "There's a certain segment of hard core Sean Hannity fans that probably wouldn't go have a beer with me." B. Obama

Ever since election "Sure, lets go have a beer. I'll even buy in the spirit of spreading the wealth". S. Hannity