That Sounds Familiar

Sorry for my brief layoff of posting, I’ve been sick with a cold since Tuesday. By the way, is it cold season, I feel like it’s always cold season.

Anyway, I’m still a tad under the weather but I’m sitting nice and comfy on big red chair (how republican) and now I finally have the energy to update something.

Some big news broke today. The February job numbers were released and they weren’t pretty. 651,000 people lost their jobs and there’s not much I can really say about that. It’s not really a surprise, I certainly expected that a large number of people would lose their jobs, maybe not that many, but I certainly thought the number would be large.

However, on a day when such gloomy jobs numbers were released Obama was at a police graduation (or something) claiming that his stimulus package saved some number of jobs at this police department. Really? I’d like to know how Obama arrived at that assumption. And if he’s already claiming successes on his stimulus, when barely any of the money has made it out the door, can we blame the terrible jobless numbers on him?

I certainly don’t believe we can. However, I also don’t believe that there’s been enough time for any successes to be born from the stimulus.

Obama’s presidency is built around rhetoric. Another example occurred this week, when Obama said that a bankruptcy occurs every 30 seconds due to health care? Well that’s been proven false.

Meanwhile Hillary Clinton is still traveling across the world attempting to become best buddies with every head of state. I’m sure she’ll have many pen pals when she gets back.

She was addressing a hearing at the European Parliament when she said a familiar line.

“Never waste a good crisis,” Clinton told a hearing at the European Parliament. “And when it comes to the economic crisis, don’t waste it when it can have a very positive impact on climate change and energy security.” … “This is a propitious time … we can actually begin to demonstrate our willingness to confront this. We are making up the best we can for lost time,” she added.

That echoes something Rahm Emanuel said just a few months ago. It should be becoming clear to everyone that the Obama administration isn’t attempting to fix the economic crisis, they’re attempting to push through their big government programs at the most dangerous time.

The American people just want the politicians to say what they mean, don’t hide big government expansion, own up to it. You might remember in Obama’s State of the Union he said he didn’t believe in big government. Ha! He’s not admitting that he’s implementing it but the least he could do is admit that he believes in it.

–jb

Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State UPDATE: Hillary might Reject?

Nothing is official yet but The Guardian is reporting that Hillary Clinton has accepted the job to be Obama’s Secretary of State. So I guess you can throw change under the bus now.

I think Clinton has the experience and the temperament for the job. Policies withstanding, she’d generally be a good Secretary of State. However, I think Obama missed a huge opportunity to build a truly bipartisan cabinet.

The Secretary of State is the highest ranking cabinet member, if the president dies or is otherwise unable to perform the duties of the presidency, the Secretary of State is fourth in line (after the vice president and the leaders of both the House and Senate).

Obama could have reached across the aisle and selected Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel for this position. Hagel is a staunch opponent of the Iraq War and the Patriot Act and has taken every opportunity given to him to point out the faults of President Bush. Hagel would see eye-to-eye with Obama on Iraq strategy and, most likely, other major foreign policy decisions.

However, Obama skipped over this opportunity. He can still fill some holes with republicans or moderate democrats, but the only spots he has left that really mean anything are Secretary of Defense, Energy, and Treasury. Who’s going to care, or even know, if Obama selects a republican for Secretary of Transportation?

If he wants to build a bipartisan cabinet he has to select a republican for at least one high ranking job. Otherwise the selection will be diluted.

On another note, what happened to change? That was the mantra of his entire campaign, that was his number one campaign promise, and the first cabinet member he selects not only ran against him but is married to the 42nd President. What kind of change is that?

In Obama’s defense his hands were tied. The other democrats being talked about for the job were Bill Richardson (a former member of Clinton’s cabinet) and John Kerry, who’s been around since what seems like the beginning of time. In all fairness out of the three democrats being talked about, Clinton was the best choice. That doesn’t mean Obama couldn’t have picked someone else. He could have surprised us all with a shocking selection but he didn’t.

As it currently stands, keeping in mind the vast number of Clinton members on his transition team, it looks as if Obama is more or less mirroring the Clinton administration.

So much for change.

UPDATE: The Politico is reporting that Clinton might reject the position as Secretary of State. Obviously I think it would be better off for Obama. But I do want to underline that this is only rumor and nothing is official yet. Hence why at the beginning of the post I wrote, “nothing is official yet.”

–jb

Democratic Hypocrisy

I was searching around my inbox this evening when I found an astounding email.

It was from Hillary Clinton. At first I thought, “well maybe she’s releasing a statement about all the rumors of her being Secretary of State.” Then I opened the email.

Dear Rodney,

Just 206 votes. That’s the difference separating Al Franken and Norm Coleman in the Minnesota Senate race — 206 votes out of about 3 million cast.

It’s addressed to Rodney because I don’t want the democrats knowing my name; so I use my fake name, Rodney Toledo.

In the coming days, Minnesota officials will carefully count every vote to make sure they get the most accurate count possible. But once again, Republicans want to interfere any way they can with the vote-counting. They’re setting up legal challenges and questioning the voting officials’ integrity.

Believe or not Hillary, and her PAC HillPAC, are spamming email subscribers and whining that republicans are interfering with the vote counting process, despite the fact that Franken is literally stealing the election.

Franken votes are magically appearing and in heavy democrat territories. A clerk randomly found 32 absentee ballots in her car, Coleman filed a lawsuit to have them disregarded because, after all, they were in a car and not in safe keeping at the clerks office. The judge ruled it was out of her jurisdiction.

There are several districts where Franken is receiving votes completely disproportional to other democrats. You’d have to be a fool to think this scum bag wasn’t stealing the election.

I guess we’ve always known Hillary to be a fool though.

Meanwhile is anyone asking the question, why should we be donating to a campaign that’s over? The recount is paid for by the state, and there aren’t any pending lawsuits on the table as far as I can tell. Why would Franken need a sudden influx of money?

To hire cronies and steal the election of course!

–jb

Pennsylvania Primaries

Tonight was the night for Clinton.

And she prevailed.

All the major outlets are declaring her the winner of Pennsylvania, despite the fact that it means nothing.

She would have to obliterate Obama (kind of like she would Iran) if she wanted to win this thing. And by obliterate I mean win by double digits, extreme double digits, in the remaining states. Thanks in part to a dumb system to the democrats have setup, but I’ve talked at length about that before.

Should she drop out? Probably. Her options are lose now, or lose on June 3rd. Either or she’s cooked. However she’s a Clinton and Clinton’s have problems conceding to their opponents.

I will give Hillary credit. She’s made a very good point about Barack Obama. Say what you will about Obama, he can’t win a big state. Clinton continually uses that as a defense against him. However, this process is about voting for you want, not who you think is going to be able to win Ohio or Florida come November. Sure Obama has had his fair share of problems with big states, but he’s still winning. The electoral college puts more emphasis on big states, but you could lose California, Ohio, Florida, and New York and still win the presidency, assuming you carried enough of those worthless small states.

Bottom line, Clinton’s done. Say hello to the new democratic presidential nominee, Barack Obama.

What an easy target he’ll be in the general election.

–To be Continued–

–jb