Seven Reasons for Healthy Skepticism

H/T – MeMaw.

Seven reasons for healthy skepticism
By JIM VANDEHEI & JOHN F. HARRIS | 1/21/09
Politico

Even in a city of cynics, the Inauguration of a new president — and the infusion of new ideas, new personalities and new energy that comes with it — summons feelings of reverence.

Barack Obama, especially, is the object of inaugural good feelings. He has assembled an impressive White House and Cabinet team. The country is clearly in his corner. With the economy gasping, and two wars dragging on sullenly, even many Republicans who ordinarily might enjoy seeing Obama fail now root for him to succeed. The stakes are simply too great.

Amid all these high hopes, it may seem needlessly sour to point out why expectations must be kept in check. But it is also realistic.

Here are seven reasons to be skeptical of Obama’s chances — and the Washington establishment he now leads:

1. The genius fallacy

There is no disputing Obama has built a Cabinet of sharp and experienced public officials. His staff, especially on national security and economic matters, is often praised as brilliant — and that’s by Republicans.

But recent history teaches us to be wary of the larger-than-life Washington figures supposedly striding across history’s stage. Consider the economy. Everyone seems to agree Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner are smart, vastly qualified to manage and repair the economy.

Everyone was saying the exact same things about the two economic geniuses of the 1990s: Robert Rubin and Alan Greenspan. Now Rubin has been reduced to making excuses for his involvement in high-risk investments and for helping oversee the demise of Citigroup, which lost $10 billion in the past three months alone. The onetime oracular Greenspan has admitted to Congress that his once-revered economic philosophy had “a flaw,” and many blame him for turning a blind eye to the housing bubble.

As it happens, the Obama economic team is full of Rubin protégés, including Geithner and Summers. Geithner had to recently admit he failed to pay taxes on a big chunk of income — as part of his confirmation process to run tax policy and the Internal Revenue Service. As president of the New York Fed, he was integrally involved in the decision not to rescue Lehman Bros., which many see, in retrospect, as a grievous error.

The reception of the Obama economic team recalls the reception of President George W. Bush’s foreign policy team eight years ago. Many Democrats applauded the experience of Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell.

As Bush named his national security team in 2000, The New York Times editorialized: “Putting superstar players on the court does not always guarantee harmony or success.” In retrospect, that was an understatement, indeed.

2. The herd instinct

The most bipartisan tradition in Washington is to laud bipartisanship, even while lamenting that there is not enough of it.

But the instinct for bipartisanship overlooks an inconvenient fact: Some of Washington’s biggest blunders occur when the government moves to do big things with big support. Bush won the much-regretted Iraq war resolution of October 2002 with strong Democratic backing.

The current economic crisis produces similar pressure to get on board the train — never mind for sure where it’s going.

Obama Retakes Oath of Office

Gee, if they are so concerned about dotting their “i’s” and crossing their “t’s” just to be sure they are following the letter of the Constitution, you would think they would have resolved that “natural-born” citizen thingy…  After all, that sounds a LOT more serious to me…

H/T – MeMaw

Obama retakes oath of office a day after Roberts flub

New president hits the ground running on his first day
Chron.com

WASHINGTON — Chief Justice John Roberts has administered the presidential oath of office to Barack Obama for a second time, just to be on the safe side.

The unusual step came after Roberts flubbed the oath a bit on Tuesday, causing Obama to repeat the wording differently than as prescribed in the Constitution.

White House counsel Greg Craig said Obama took the oath from Roberts again out of an “abundance of caution.”

The chief justice and the president handled the matter privately in the Map Room on Wednesday night. […]

Have “We the People” Been Betrayed?

Have “We the People” been betrayed
By decisions our agencies and courts have made
In protecting a man who has not proven that he
Is qualified for the office of the U.S. presidency?

First, mainstream media TV, radio and the press
Failed true reporting by refusing to address
The character of the person that they protected,
And made sure they did so until he was elected.

He spent millions of dollars obtained through ruses
And blatantly flaunted all campaign abuses.
FEC was lax in getting proof that it needed
When notices had deadlines and went unheeded.

The lie about Bill Ayers and relationship to him
Warranted close investigation of both of them.
And twenty years in the church of Jeremiah Wright
Would let anyone know he hated people of white.

Why did Homeland Security and Immigration
Fail in their duty regarding laws of our nation?
Did FBI thoroughly investigate claims
That registrations had multiple and fictitious names?

Lawsuits with merit were denied by every court,
Even with documents of evidence of every sort.
Americans cannot now trust those who should uphold
Our U.S. Constitution and all our great values of old.

Again I ask, have “We the People” been betrayed
By the decisions our government leaders have made?
There is certainly doubt, especially for me,
That we will still be known as the “Land of the Free”.

Poem by NotAllDum.  Transcribed by MeMaw.

Geert Wilders Gets Prosecuted for Telling the Truth

Well, this was already all over the blogosphere when I woke up this morning, but I felt it important enough to post as it shows how Islam is allowed to openly preach hate, yet when it comes to others exposing Islam for what it is, Muzzies immediately use “hate-speech” laws to silence critics and hide Islam’s true nature.  Obviously, like Obama, they are followers of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals:

Rule #4 – “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules.

Dutch Politician Geert Wilders Faces Prosecution
January 21, 2009 – CBN

Geert Wilders, who I interviewed in the Netherlands last year, faces prosecution for inciting racial hatred, after a Dutch court ruled today that his attacks on Islam and the Koran are not protected speech.

You can watch the interview below.

Wilders, who produced the short film “Fitna,” has compared the Koran to Hitler’s “Mein Kampf,” and has said Islamic culture is “retarded,” among other things.

It would be ironic for at east one reason if Wilders ever goes to jail. A jail cell was one of the places where Dutch authorities chose to hide Wilders from Muslims who wanted to kill him.

Predictably, Obama Pledges a “New Start” With 7th Century Barbarians

What frackin’ new start?  We were the ones who were attacked on 9/11 and our government is already bending over backwards  for these little psychopathic freaks.  If anything, it’s the Muzzies who need to do a whole lot of sucking up.  But, what do you expect from an illegitimate, hedonistic  Leftard President…

Obama pledges new start with Muslims

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama promised to improve U.S. ties with the Muslim world in his inauguration address on Tuesday, after tensions that followed the September 11 attacks and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“To the Muslim world, we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest and mutual respect,” said Obama, who became the first black president of the United States.

Obama, a practicing Christian, spent several years of his childhood in Indonesia, the most populous Muslim nation. His American mother, Ann Dunham, married Muslim Indonesian Lolo Soetoro after the end of her marriage to Obama’s Kenyan father.

[Nope.  NOT a practicing Christian.  A Christian believes Jesus when He said He was the only way to Heaven, Obama believes there are numerous paths to Heaven.  A practicing Christian believes that homosexuality is a sin; NOT an acceptable behavior like Obama believes as evinced by Obama and his wife yesterday at the parade when they waved tempestuously at the gay bands, but was apathetic to the other “normal” bands…  Yeah, MeMaw called me up to tell me ALL about that one!]

“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,” Obama said.

Under President George W. Bush, U.S. relations with Muslim nations have often been fractious, particularly after the September 11 attacks.

[Good grief!  Yeah right…  It was all Bush’s fault.  What a crock…  If I had been President, I would not have been so amicable as to name it a “War on Terror.”  It would have been called “The War on Islam…”   So, as Leatherneck says, “STFU!”]

Many Muslims were angered by the U.S.-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the opening of a prison for foreign terrorism suspects at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, widely seen as a symbol of human rights abuses of mostly Muslim prisoners carried out in the name of the “war on terrorism.”

The Council on American Islamic Relations welcomed Obama’s promise on seeking better relations with Muslim nations.

[And, as President, I would have declared CAIR a terrorist organization and jailed ALL of them!]

What Are Muslims?

Hilarious video.

CLICK HERE to watch.

WARNING!  Lots of bad language…

Why I Want Obama to Fail As President

Why I Want Barack Obama To Fail As President
Posted by Warner Todd Huston – RedState.com
Wednesday, January 21st 2009

An extremely liberal co-worker of mine — he’s in the past said that the “rich” should be killed, for instance — asked me a serious question by which he felt he could gauge whether or not I was a “real” American in his eyes during the rise of the age of Obama. He wondered whether I wish success for Barack Obama as our president. After a few seconds of reflection I had to honestly give a qualified “no” in answer to his query. Naturally this fellow went off about how it was unAmerican to wish the president to fail and how it would damage the country. But, after he briefly calmed down, and brief calm is usually all we can expect from him, I gave him a fuller explanation.

I reminded him that it was a qualified no I gave him. Of course every American wants his president to be successful on every count that will benefit the country. No true American wants to see a monumental, destructive, Carteresque failure in the White House. My liberal co-worker is correct on that count. No one wants the next Buchanan, who, Nero-like, fiddled while Washington D.C. and the country burned. We want them all to be Reagans, Washingtons and Lincolns.

But, that is just it, isn’t it? We want them to do what is best for the country. That is what we mean by “success.” And, when you get right down to it, opinions vary of what “best” means. I do want Obama to be successful on what would be best for this country, absolutely. Unfortunately, there is little that he campaigned on that would be good for this country.

Now, let’s look at the very phrase this is all predicated upon. “I want Barack Obama to succeed.” Or, similarly, “I don’t want Obama to fail.” Both being the same premise. But, let’s face it, the devil is always in the details, isn’t it? What does “fail” or “succeed” even mean? Do I want Barack Obama to succeed in turning this country into a weaker, more communist copy of France? Hardly. But if he did succeed at that, it would be a success of a sort — especially should that have been his goal.

But I don’t want that sort of success.

Conversely, when I asked my liberal friend if he wanted Obama to “succeed” in a way that made him an even more conservative copy of Ronald Reagan, he nearly chocked to death trying to get a decided and vociferous “no” out of his own mouth.

He wouldn’t want that sort of success.

Cleric Abu Hamza Says its Okay to Beat and Rape Your Wife

It’s in the unholy Qur’an, so yes – it’s okay to beat and rape your wife if you’re a Muzzie…

Cleric: Rape, beating ok for wives
By Mark Dunn
January 22, 2009 – news.com.au

AN AUSTRALIAN Islamic cleric has told his male followers it is permissable that they force their wives to have sex and hit them if they are disobedient.

Melbourne’s self-styled cleric Samir Abu Hamza said despite Australian rape laws it was impossible for a man to rape his wife even if she refused to have sex with him.

In a recorded lecture entitled “The Keys to a Successful Marriage”, delivered to his male worshippers but now broadcast on the internet and viewed by several thousand people, Hamza said Islamic law allowed men to hit their wives as a last resort but they were not to make them bleed or become bruised.

He said under Islamic law, as described in a Koranic verse, it was a man’s right to demand sex from his wife whenever he felt like it.

“If the husband was to ask her for a sexual relationship and she is preparing the bread on the stove she must leave it and come and respond to her husband, she must respond,” Hamza told his male followers on the video sermon.

He then mocked Australia’s criminal laws which required consent for sex to be lawful.

[Disrespecting the laws of the country you have immigrated to…  More proof that Muzzies aren’t migrating to western societies to escape Sharia Law, rather they are there to help spread Sharia Law…]

“In this country if the husband wants to sleep with his wife and she does not want to and she hasn’t got a sickness or whatever, there is nothing wrong with her she just does not feel like it, and he ends up sleeping with her by force … it is known to be as rape.

“Amazing, how can a person rape his wife?” Hamza asked.

“Migrant” Rapes Girl For Free Food and English Lessons in Jail

Yeah, we all know what “Migrant” is British PC  code for…

H/T – Matamoros

Migrant raped to get English lessons in jail
By ALASTAIR TAYLOR – TheSun.co.uk

A VIOLENT Romanian thug raped a terrified rail passenger — because he wanted to be jailed in Britain to get somewhere to sleep, eat and learn ENGLISH.

Ali Majlat, 35, travelled to the UK in June and went to Yorkshire to visit his brother who was already serving a sentence at a top security prison.

He had served jail sentences in Romania for robbery and was briefly caged for a raid in London last September after he had been sleeping rough.

He decided he preferred it so much in Britain he wanted to be jailed here again.

Weeks after his release he targeted a 21-year-old woman waiting for a train at deserted Wakefield Kirkgate Station on a Sunday night — punching, kicking and dragging her to the ground.

As she tried to escape he chased her into a station underpass and raped her then fled with her phone, purse and a bracelet.

When he was arrested nearly 200 miles away in London five days later, he claimed: “When I was at the station I thought I should rape this lady in order to get a place to eat and sleep and learn the English language.”

[Yeah, well… I’m not buying it.  If his REAL motivation was just to go to jail, he would not have tried to evade the police by fleeing to London…]