Archive for September, 2009

Dan Calabrese

We find out a lot about a president’s priorities by what he says in an address he considers major. And while we can take some solace in the fact that President Obama often just says what he thinks will sound good to his audience, it’s hard to miss – in his United Nations address this week – the profound difference in emphasis between Obama and his predecessors on the subject of freedom and democracy.

I'm not too worried about it.

Obama told the assembled throngs at Turtle Bay that he sees “four pillars” as crucial to the supposed agenda of the entire world and its leaders. They are: 1) getting rid of nuclear weapons; 2) the “pursuit of peace”; 3) “protecting the planet”; and 4) the global economy.

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Ashley Stinnett

The stars have aligned for radical liberals worldwide. America’s Barack Obama is positioning himself to become the world’s first de facto president. Just a short time ago he was a mere college professor opining on important issues such as health care, education and poverty in the United States. Now, he is taking on more daunting issues such as a “new world order” in the form of foreign appeasement and the surrender of the United States currency to foreign dictators.

Didn’t he look comfy this week in the big chair with the gavel? It was frighteningly emperor-esque.

President of the world

Obama’s latest dysfunctional escapade came this week in front of a worldwide audience at the U.N. General Assembly Hall in New York City. As Obama proudly proclaimed that “America will no longer be looked at as a go at it alone nation” world leaders sat and chuckled. Certainly this was a hoorah moment for every anti-Israeli in the crowd.

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Mark Watson

Who could believe a federal agency would issue a gag order on an American corporation to prevent it from commenting on pending legislation? Well, that’s exactly what Health and Human Services has done.

Humana, a Louisville, Kentucky based health insurance provider, sent a letter to its enrollees regarding its concerns about potential cuts in the Medicare Advantage program. The letter upset Senator Max Baucus, D-MT, so much he wrote his own little letter to HHS asking it to investigate whether the letter violated any government regulations.

Shut up, he explained.

The senate’s medical insurance reform legislation was written by the Montana Democrat.

Baucus complained that “It is wholly unacceptable for insurance companies to mislead seniors regarding any subject, particularly on a subject as important to them, and to the nation, as health care reform.” He added that, “I’m not going to let insurance company profits stand in the way of improving Medicare for seniors.”

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Bob Maistros

Many Americans are no doubt confused by some of the terminology used by the president in recent weeks as he has given speeches before a joint session of Congress and the United Nations, conducted a variety of television interviews and introduced new policy proposals.  As a public service, we are providing a glossary of these terms with their real meanings:

Let's be clear.

ACORN – who?  Never heard of them.  (For related definition of Defunding – “holding a show vote on an amendment to eliminate funding, then bottling up the bill” – see the Congressional Glossary.)

Action (as in “now is the time for action”) – big government.

Balanced and sustained (as in “chart a course for growth that is balanced and sustained”) – involving more big government.

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Jamie Weinstein

Every American should sit and watch at least some of the speeches at the opening session of the United Nations General Assembly every year. If they did, perhaps there would not be such a high regard for the international body as there is in some quarters.

Yesterday, the new session of the United Nations General Assembly opened with speeches from world leaders, notably President Barack Obama, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and Libyan leader Colonel Moammar Qaddafi (or the “king of kings of Africa” as he was seriously introduced).

No one's friends.

Qaddafi became the leading candidate for the Fidel Castro Award for Rhetorical Buffoonery with his speech, though to be fair, Venezuelan aspiring despot Hugo Chavez gets his shot at the award today. Emulating Castro, Qaddafi exceeded the 15 minutes he was given to speak by around an hour and a half as he incoherently read handwritten notes off notebook paper.

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Sarah Palin has posted an excerpt of her Hong Kong speech on her

"We're not interested in government fixes. We're interested in freedom."

Facebook page. Here it is:

So far, I’ve given you the view from Main Street, USA. But now I’d like to share with you how a Common Sense Conservative sees the world at large.

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Dan Calabrese

You knew this was coming.

Today, the AP lets loose with a lengthy tome all about the likely, maybe, quite possible, you’d think, how-could-it-be-otherwise ties between the team of O’Keefe/Giles and the dark, sinister forces in conservative activism.

All propaganda.

One problem: Even leaving aside the fact that it wouldn’t matter a hill of beans, at least insofar as the quality and relevance of their work is concerned, the fact of the matter is that the AP can’t find a thing.

Oh, they tried. They pumped Fox News for answers about whether Fox paid for the right to air the footage. They asked Andrew Brietbart and Glenn Beck what-did-you-know-and-when-did-you-know-it type questions about their first exposure to the video.

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David Karki

Two big speeches were given today; one by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin at an Asian investment conference in Hong Kong, and the other by President Barack Obama at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The substance, the style, and most importantly what they mean for America’s and even the world’s future could not be more starkly different.

Clear line.

Palin elaborated on the theme of Reagan’s 1980 Inaugural Address – Government isn’t the solution to our problems, government is the problem. As the event was closed to the media, a full transcript of her remarks isn’t available, but here are a few of the money quotes:

• “We got into this mess because of government interference in the first place. We’re not interested in government fixes, we’re interested in freedom.”

• “Liberalism holds that there is no human problem that government can’t fix if only the right people are put in charge.”

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David B. Livingstone

What a difference a disaster makes.

Only a scant few days ago, the righteous red citizenry of Georgia were holding teaparties and disrupting townhall meetings with their anti-federal government placards and slogans.

Having proudly cast their state’s electoral votes against Barack Obama in antideluvian 2009, these self-professed patriots continued to trumpet their righteous umbrage against any and all things socialistic, inveighing against public health care, stimulus packages and federal bailouts in the name of glorious capitalistic principles, with their weasel-eyed governor Sonny Perdue leading the charge. But let it rain a little bit — OK, a lot— and see what happens.

Who's shrugging now, Galts?

Floodwaters rise and suddenly the good folk of the Peachtree State go all commie on us.

Even the reptilian brain of Sonny Perdue seems to have figured out that market-based solutions aren’t going to rescue Atlanta from ten feet of floodwater. As houses, cars, and people are washed away, the righteous libertarian raises his bleating little voice in a plea towards Washington: President Obama, save us.

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