The Trump Moment; Give me anything but another celebrity apprentice.

National Review Online "Trump wants to be the anti-Obama. Obama is too soft; Trump is tough. Obama knows nothing about business; Trump is God’s gift to American capitalism. Obama is painfully thoughtful in his affect; Trump is brash. They share much more important qualities in common, though. Like the Obama of 2008, Trump is an arrogant celebrity with a talent for branding who knows much less than he thinks and vastly overestimates his ability to fix the country’s problems.
"We’ve been here before." Rich Lowry

Obama gives jihadists the olive branch and Ryan the hickory stick.

Andrew C. McCarthy "Ryan was reeled in by the suggestion that the invitation was an olive branch, a White House concession that he had grappled responsibly with a monstrous problem and that a gracious, cooperative presidential response was in order. But it was a setup. The Chicago mob strategically seated Ryan a few paces from the lectern, whence the don went Al Capone on him. The congressman was made into a prop, Exhibit A in a presidential tirade that mocked his plan and his party as scourges of the elderly, the destitute, and the chronically ill."
....
"As the Obama administration’s rough treatment of Representative Ryan shows, it’s not a comfortable time to be a member of Congress who starts asking a lot of questions this president doesn’t want to hear. Fortunately for the economy, it appears that Ryan is not backing down. For the sake of our security, though, somebody up on the Hill better step up. It is past time to ask: What on earth is this administration’s infatuation with the Muslim Brotherhood?"

WSJ: Was he serious?

Hot Air 10:12 am on April 14  "The Wall Street Journal editorial board couldn’t believe what it heard yesterday in Barack Obama’s deficit speech .  Well, believe is probably the wrong word, since Obama offered little of substance other than rhetorical bombs aimed at Paul Ryan, accusing him of trying to kill an entire generation of retirees while offering nothing specific to oppose it.  The WSJ dismantles Obama’s speech in their lead editorial as fundamentally demagogic and as unserious as a President can get:"....
"If this is what passes for a major policy speech, this administration has completely run out of gas."

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/chipbok

Mona Charen: Obama’s Demagoguery  "Last week, Rep. Paul Ryan was asked whether he and the Republicans were making themselves vulnerable to demagogic attacks by taking on entitlement spending directly. “We are,” he replied. “They are going to demagogue us, and — and it’s that demagoguery that has always prevented political leaders in the past from actually trying to fix the problem.”
"You might have expected President Obama to be shamed out of his worst instincts by that prediction. He wasn’t."

Obama Cedes the High Ground   "Paul Ryan was actually hurt by the president’s remarks. He expected better. He somehow believed he and the GOP leadership were now players in the budget game and not tackling dummies. What he and Speaker Boehner don’t seem to realize yet is what a gift the Republicans in Congress have been given. With his speech at GWU which was long on invective and short on inspiration, the president essentially ceded all the high ground on fiscal matters to the opposition. He announced he does not want a solution to America’s deficit and debt crisis."

Thomas Sowell on Taxes and Politics

Townhall  "For more than 80 years, the political left has opposed what they call "tax cuts for the rich." But big cuts in very high tax rates ended up bringing in more revenue to the government in the Coolidge, Kennedy, Reagan and Bush 43 administrations. This included more-- repeat, more-- tax revenue from people in the highest income brackets than before.
"That was because high-income people took their money out of tax shelters like municipal bonds and invested where they could get a higher rate of return..."

Ideals Trump Interests in Obama's Libya Policy

Raymond Ibrahim  "How about "doing what's right" in Darfur, where countless non-Muslims have been butchered by the Islamist regime in Khartoum for these many years? How about "doing what's right" regarding the persecuted, indigenous Christians of the Islamic world? (Whereas one of Obama's reasons for intervening in Libya was that mosques were unintentionally being destroyed — he has been silent in word and deed regarding the numerous churches intentionally being destroyed in the Muslim world.)"

Earth Day Tips

From our son, Jeff, who is a bit of a wag:
"Earth Day is next week. Below are some tips you can use to help take care of this big blue marble we are borrowing."

• Don’t buy any Justin Bieber CDs. They will only end up in our landfills.
• Don’t put ice in your drinks. Ice harvesting is destroying the polar ice caps.
• Drive really fast. The quicker you can get to work, the less time your car will have to burn fuel.
• Get a dog. A dog can lick a plate cleaner than any dishwasher and the dog uses none of our valuable resources to do it.
• Drive a really big SUV. They create more shade and slow down global warming.
• Don’t buy products tested on animals. They look ridiculous wearing make-up.
• To avoid polluting the air, bring your barbeque grill inside before grilling.
• Don’t buy flowers. They are grown in greenhouses and we all know the danger of greenhouse gases. At least that can be your story when you forget Valentine’s Day.
• Flush your toilets only once a day. This will save many gallons of water per day. A lighted candle and leaving the seat down will take care of 90% of the odor.
• Kill a whale. Each whale eats about 2,500 pounds of beautiful ocean creatures per day. And think of the waste left behind from a 2,500 pound-a-day diet. That giant wasteberg could potentially bring down a ship carrying oil.
• Paint your SUV green.
• Wash your hands just once a week. Purell three times a day will take care of the germs, even at the end of the week when it gets pasty while rubbing it in.
• Don’t buy tuna. Sure most of it is dolphin-safe these days, but none of it is tuna-safe.
• Plant a garden. (does not apply to California where environmental extremists will block you from watering said garden)
• Rent an Ed Begley Jr. movie. There are plenty still available.
• Give a cow a Beano. Cow flatulence is the number one polluter of the environment.*
• Leave your lights on all day. The brighter we can make it with lighting, the less of our greatest natural resource; the sun, we will have to use up.
• Buy a Toyota Prius. Maybe you can find ways other than your car to look cool.
• Use lots of hairspray. This will increase the hole in the ozone layer, which allows heat to escape out- thereby slowing down global warming. Think of the hole in the ozone as a giant vent on the roof of our earth’s hot attic.
• Take your own grocery bags to the store. This will reduce trash in our landfills and it makes shoplifting easier.
• Use a windmill to power your home. They create more energy than you can use and it’s fun to watch spotted owls try to fly through their spinning blades in one piece.
• Use powdered water. It doesn’t do much for thirst but you feel better about using it
• Forego the oven all together. Uncooked, many foods taste exactly the same as cooked- just not as hot.
• Buy a Water Pik. You can tape it to the bottom of your toilet seat and convert your existing toilet into a luxurious bidet. This will eliminate paper going down the drain when you flush your toilet at the end of the day.
• Boycott Motel 6 until they stop leaving that stupid energy-consuming light on for us.
• Instead of using tree-killing materials, add that extra room onto your house by using “bricks” made of tightly bundled dirty diapers. Not only will your house be greener but the air inside will be a little greener as well.
• Turn your heat down to 62°. If you get cold you can put on a toasty-warm mink coat.
• Let your faucet run while you are brushing your teeth and doing the dishes. This extra water will go down the drain and feed the thirsty creeks and rivers.
• Become envious. It will make you green.
• Only buy carpet made of bamboo. And be sure to recycle the splinters you pull out of your feet.
• Eat greener foods. It’s better for the planet and it will save you money. Many foods get discounted once they turn green.
• After raking your leaves put them in a plastic garbage bag. Leaves are good for the earth and they will last a lot longer in a plastic bag.
• Make your kids mow the lawn. That way you’ll be burning their excess energy instead of quickly blowing through your own limited resources.
• Turn the light off when you leave the room. Sure it will anger everyone remaining in the room but you can just say, “Deal with it whiners! I’m being green and junk.”
• Dig up your trees, bushes and lawn. These just drink up our valuable water resources and require maintenance from gas guzzling, smog producing equipment.
• Wipe out the panda population. They eat way too much of the earth’s precious plant life.
• Print all of your emails. That way you can read them all any time you want without having to turn on your power-sucking computer.
• Use the word “green” in your conversations every time you get a chance. You may not actually be helping the environment but you will sound like you are- which ought to keep those tree huggers away.
• Take environmental advice from your favorite celebrity- even if he did drop out of high school so he could play the part of Gizzard in Animal Road Trip 3.
• Eat at the Rainforest Café. The grilled baby seal is Deeeee-lish!
• Only buy dolphin-safe beef.
• Don’t drink bottled water. Instead pour if from the bottle into a glass or Styrofoam cup.
• Don’t use your air conditioner. Sure, you may have to apply several extra coats of Chlorofluorocarbon producing spray-on deodorant.
• Ride the bus to work. Just hope you don’t have to sit next to a guy who, in the name of a greener earth, stopped using his air conditioner.
• Buy a minivan instead of a maxivan.
• Use disposable diapers. They don’t require earth-destroying chemicals to clean them and they just go into the landfills anyway. And nobody wants to save the landfills. They’re disgusting!
• Go to the bathroom outside. It saves water. It feeds the grass. And it gives you a chance to say hello to your neighbors.
• Water is a precious natural resource that needs to be saved. Instead of water, buy ice and let it melt into water. This way, instead of using water you are creating it!
• Send a designer some money as a thank you for making the world a more beautiful place.
• Save energy by turning off your TV every time you see Al Gore appear on it.
• Do your spray painting near a lighted candle. The flame will burn off the harmful VOC’s before they have a chance to rise up into the precious atmosphere.
• Plant a tree. It creates shade, traps CO2’s and provides oxygen. Plus, it will give you an excuse to go out and buy that 8-horse, gas-powered leaf blower you’ve been wanting.
• *http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/GlobalWarming/story?id=2723201&page=1  
  
• By Jeff Hayden, Plano, TX

Obama caught offguard

Obama: GOP tried to "sneak" agenda into budget  "In what he thought was a private chat with campaign donors Thursday evening, President Obama offered the most revealing behind-the-scenes account to date of his budget negotiations with GOP leaders last week.
"CBS Radio News White House correspondent Mark Knoller listened in to an audio feed of Mr. Obama's conversation with donors after other reporters traveling with the president had left the room."

Paul Ryan rips Obama’s speech: “Rather than building bridges, he’s poisoning wells”

GoogleImages

Hot Air  "It’s all here: Obama’s gutless insistence on farming this issue out to commissions to spare himself the political risks of leadership; his betrayal of his sunny 2008 campaign message, swapping the post-partisan Hopenchange problem-solver crap for a double-barreled attack on the GOP; and of course, the horribly cynical electoral calculus in all this, which earns a sneering reference from Ryan to the “Campaigner-in-Chief.” It’s that last bit that bothers him the most, I think."

Human Rights for Mother Nature Coming to the UN?

Heritage  "As part of its initiative “to end capitalism” and realize “harmony” with Mother Earth, Bolivia will propose a U.N. treaty this month for the protection of what it calls nature’s fundamental rights. A “Ministry of Mother Earth” would be created, with an ombudsman to hear nature’s cries and translate them for bureaucrats. "

Gaia  "Gaia or Gaea, known as Earth or Mother Earth (the Greek common noun for "land" is ge or ga)."

Earth Worship, The New World Religion 

Latest And Greatest Cause of “Global Warming” – Ice Makers…

Screen shot from Weasel Zippers

 

Bushwhacked Barack

Pajamas Media   "Using his predecessor as a foil for his failures might trap the president, as polls show he is beginning to suffer by comparison."....
"For a man ostensibly focused on winning the future, President Obama spends a disproportionate amount of his time fighting the battles of the past. But the American public is not looking back at what prior presidents did; they are looking toward the current president for leadership and solutions on the big challenges facing the country. As a policy address, President Obama’s budget speech failed miserably to provide either. The numbers show that as a campaign speech, it wasn’t much better."
Obama is loved by his base for his domestic agenda;  his stature as a world leader is not on their collective radar, apparently. Neville Chamberlain in the 1930's is considered by history an example of a feckless leader who sells out our allies to appease evil men. But many are not aware that he had economic policies that did much to help Great Britain emerge from the depression.
Chamberlain was an excellent economist, but his accomplishments have been forgotten by most because of his cowering before Hitler. Even if ObamaCare and European socialism become the saviors of our system, Obama will be judged by the presence of nuclear Iran and North Korea as well as all other things that happen on the world stage including Obama's willingness to sell out our allies. History has bigger priorities than the Democrat Party.

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/henrypayne

More yet on Obama vs. Ryan

From National Review:
Mark Steyn: Cometh the Hour, Punteth the Man  "There’s something sad about a man so carelessly revealing himself as entirely inadequate to the moment. Government spending is an existential threat to the United States. Whether or not anyone at the White House knows this, the viziers decided to shove the sultan out on stage with a pitifully unserious speech retreating to all his lamest tropes..."

Victor Davis Hanson  Obama vs. Obama  "These weird about-faces raise interesting questions that transcend the current politics of the deficit:" To wit:...

 Andrew Stiles  ‘Excessively Partisan, Dramatically Inaccurate and Hopelessly Inadequate’  "I imagine being forced to sit through a smug lecture explaining how the serious plan you’ve just proposed to save America from a debt crisis is actually, in fact, fundamentally un-American, is not a very pleasant experience."

From Pajamas Media

President Boring  "But what is it about Obama that makes him so boring? I submit it is something quite simple — he has nothing to say. He is a boring person, the quintessential “hollow man” in the T.S. Eliot sense. He is kind of a socialist, kind of a liberal, kind of a multi-culturalist, kind of an environmentalist, kind of globalist, kind of a budget cutter — but none of them with any real commitment." Roger Simon.

From Patterico's Pontifications
Fisking the President’s Speech on the Deficit  "So let’s go through it together, shall we?"  Then Mr. Patterico dissects the speech phrase-by-phrase.

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/glennmccoy

Comments on That Speech: Remember who Obama's stated enemies are: not Muslim radicals, but private enterprise

We have attempted to get a balanced group of commentaries where we include opinions from both those who are  critical of MTV President Obama's policies and those who consider him a disaster and an economic jughead. 

Several posts from Neal Boortz:
 Highlights From Presbo's Speech "Tax the rich? Yeah … that’s the way out of this mess. But Obama isn’t looking for a way out … he’s looking for a way IN. He’s looking for keys to the White House for another four years, and he knows that ramping up wealth envy and engaging in class warfare is the surest way into the hearts and minds of his core constituency."....
"Like I said, it was a campaign speech, not a serious policy speech."
    Then this: Obama's Plan  "Yeah .. and these high-achievers won’t change their economic behavior one bit as a result of your tax hikes, will they, Mr. Community Organizer?
   And this: It was a campaign speech.  "It was exactly what you would expect from someone with no real world private sector experience and a penchant for flowery campaign rhetoric … little of which has any basis in reality."
   Finally this: Paul Ryan's reaction  "Exploiting people’s emotions of fear, envy, and anxiety is not hope. It’s not change. It’s partisanship. We don’t need partisanship. We don’t need demagoguery. We need solutions. And we don’t need to keep punting to other people to make tough decisions. If we don’t make tough decisions today, our children are going to have to make much, much tougher decisions tomorrow."

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/michaelramirez






Fox’s Neil Cavuto Conducts The Most Fiery Deficit Reduction Interview Ever  "...we’re extremely grateful to Fox News’ Neil Cavuto for injecting some much-needed passion into the discussion. And by “passion,” we of course mean “an excuse to break out the popcorn and jujubes and yell ‘Jerry! Jerry!’ at our TV screen.”"

"Cavuto brought on Texas’ Democratic Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson   to weigh in on the deficit talks and, suffice to say, these two probably won’t be grabbing frappuccinos together at any point soon."

Obama is a big problem, but not THE problem. What I fear is the shallowness and ignorance of those who support this man. One Obama approval poll I'd like to see would be broken up into two groups: those who can explain supply and demand versus those who think it's some sort of capitalist plot. The Tunnel Dweller

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/henrypayne

This from no less a figure than Andy McCarthy: Re: Radio Free Boehner  "As Obama’s speech yesterday shows, small government conservatives are going to be viciously demagogued no matter how earnestly they struggle to preserve entitlement programs while bringing them into line with economic reality."

From Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion :  Hand-to-Hand Combat Has Started   "Yesterday's speech was a calculated move by someone who doesn't care about the deficit to pretend to care so that he could use the issue in political hand-to-hand combat.
"If you don't think 2012 is the make-or-break political year for this country, then you haven't been paying attention."

From Heritage:  Playing Politics Isn’t the Answer, Mr. President  "In a new poll from the Associated Press, voters say they prefer spending cuts to tax hikes by a 62-29 margin. President Obama would do well to step out from behind the podium and hear some common sense from the American people. Spending is the problem, cutting it is the solution. Higher taxes, decimating our defense and playing partisan politics are not the answers."

From Fred Barnes:   Obama Sinks to the Occasion ; No hope, no change. "President Obama always lets you down. Just when you think he’s ready to deliver a lofty speech chocked with specifics on handling the spending and debt emergency, he offers up a hyper-partisan attack on the leading Republican proposal, gives practically no details of his own plan, and then sanctimoniously puts himself on the side of preserving “the American dream for future generations.”"

http://townhall.com/political-cartoons/jerryholbert