Did Obama Pledge to End Earmarks?

The answer is clearly NO!

http://mediamatters.org/items/200903150011?f=h_top
As mediamatters.org points out, Obama OPPOSED the outright elimination of earmarks. So why are republicans and even media outlets like Fox continuing to spew out these lies?

OBAMA [video clip]: Done right, earmarks have given legislators the opportunity to direct federal money to worthy projects that benefit people in their districts. And that's why I've opposed their outright elimination.

ASMAN: Well, he once pledged to ban all earmarks. Now the president says, eh, they're not so bad. And someone here says the president is right. Hi, everybody, I'm David Asman, welcome to Forbes on Fox. Let's get to our "Flipside" with Steve Forbes, Victoria Barrett, and Bill Baldwin, along with Neil Weinberg, Elizabeth MacDonald, and Jack Gage. Jack, of all the people in the world, I would not have expected you to defend earmarks.

JACK GAGE (Forbes magazine associate editor): Look, I think we have to separate two things. One, Barack Obama's contradiction of what he said before about how he feels about earmarks. But the second thing, I believe there's a fundamental case to be made for earmarks as part of the fabric of representative government.

But see, thats not true.

http://www.ontheissues.org/Economic/Barack_Obama_Government_Reform.htm

Obama, during the campaign, wanted to reform ear marks and go line by line through the budget and eliminate wasteful spending and unbeneficial ear marks. I challenge one person to find a quote in which Obama said he was for the banning of earmarks. Can't find it? Neither can I. And neither can the right. Because if they did, they would be quoting it from here to timbucktoo.

What they want is something to hang Obama on. They can't find it, so they make something up that sounds relatively true. But one thing Obama was quoted on during the campaign rings true. Republicans continue to focus on the tiniest part of the over all bill. The Omnibus Spending bill had allot of earmarks. But they still totaled less than 1 to 2 percent of the total bill. In other words, looking at the big picture, there wasn't allot of the money going towards ear marks. And even if there was, the Republicans only had 40% of the total NUMBER of earmarks in the bill, they spend just as much as the democrats, nearly 50% of the earmark money was for republican ear marks. And in fact, 6 out of the top ten ear markers were republicans.

All that racket for nothing. In other words, as usual, another big racket in which the republicans were being hypocrites. AGAIN! At some point, the republicans must realize that they have to come through on what they say. You can't just say stuff then do the opposite. They aren't the majority any more, they aren't getting their agenda through. If they ever want to get votes back, they MUST stop the hypocrisy! They can start with ear marks. Why don't people like Michelle Buckman of Minnesota, who scream about ear marks this year, stop requesting ear marks. While she was throwing a fit about ear marks, she quietly put three in herself. THAT is the hypocrisy people vote out in the last two elections.

President Obama's New Budget

Time for the budget fight of a lifetime as Republicans decide that NOW they are budget conservatives! Thats right, the party that gave you one spending bill after another to send our troops to die in a foreign land, now isn't willing to spend any money on YOU. Attack a country? Sure! Run up the debt and triple the deficit! Get our own people a better energy policy, start on healthcare, and raise taxes on the richest? No way!

So lets go over what is in this new budget plan shall we?

1. Obama's new budget proposes more money for the sciences, including NASA, Energy Department, and the EPA. Its time to turn back the clock on the republicans War on Science. Listen, we cannot continue to go at the pace we are going with the environment. Either we start fixing it now, or we pay much more later. We have business men already waiting to fill in the gaps for clean energy! People who know how to make a buck are chomping at the bit to introduce clean energy like wind power at a colossal level! Its time we had a president that acts responsibly and gives science the ammo it needs to make the kinds of advance that took us from skid row to the moon in just a few decades.

2. The new budget cuts war funding. A stunning and clear cut message that we are leaving Iraq.

3. New budget actually CUTS general government spending and keeps deficit at around a trillion for the next two years, then will begin to cut it. Why and how is this? After all the budget is at record level for 2010 and 2011. But he can do this because he has shown IMMENSE transparency in the budget! What I mean to say is that the stimulus packages AND the war funding are being put into the budget this time around. That means that while it is higher over all, it only appears so because he has put in the other spending that our previous president left out. So now ALL the spending is "on the books" unlike before. But if you compare the spending of the previous administration and make it apples for apples, Obama's budget spending is either lower or the same. He is just being honest with our spending now so it looks bigger.

4. Billions are being put back for our future health care plan. This is a great step in the right direction and getting us ready for national healthcare in the next couple years. This must be the biggest and best thing our country has seen since the New Deal. THIS is huge! I personally can't wait for national health care! I am willing to up my taxes to pay for it.

5. Taxes on the rich will be raised to what they were during Reagan and Clinton's era. Last I checked, the last 20 years have been fabulous for the rich. They have seen their median income go up while the rest of the country has remained stagnant. Wages for them go up for them but not us. Its time to pay the piper and give your fair share. When you benefit most from our system, you should pay more into it.

Over all, this budget is great. I love nearly every aspect of it. All of these things are things I have been speaking out for, for a long time! We need these things and its nice to FINALLY have a president pushing a budget that works for us! The republicans insist on being the party of no. Of course, over all spending is up 8% for the military. But they of course whine about that too saying its not being raised enough! Listen republicans! You can't have it both ways! You can't cry out for more spending cuts while crying for more spending! So shut it! You are a bunch of hypocrites who have earned my scorn! Stuff a sock in it republicans, until you can learn what works and understand that you lost in November for a good reason! Figure out what that reason was, and you might gain a seat or two in the future. Or maybe not.

Obama Birth Certificate Conspiracy based on Conservative Satire!

http://liberalsmash.blogspot.com/2008/03/obama-is-kenyan-but-not-really-or-is-he.html

Much has been said in the New York Times about the legality of John Sidney McCain III being able to assume the Presidency of the United States because he was not actually born in this country. What the Democrats want you to believe is there is a legitimate problem created by his being born in the Panama Canal zone on a United States military installation. His father was active-duty Navy and was sent to the canal zone by the United States government. There is no problem at all with McCain's bid. The one glaring thing that they overlook is that Barry Obama is not the offspring of American citizens. Let's look at the real problem.

Barry's father was Kenyan. Was he even legally in this country? He was NEVER a citizen. Did Ann Dunham become a citizen of Kenya when she married the Kenyan? Granted, it has become law of the land that if two criminals make it into this country and spawn, their offspring by right becomes a ward of the Fed. Yes, a ward of the Fed because from that point on, we pick up the tab for everything that child needs.

This comes from the basic premise that two negatives equal a positive. In math, that's great, but in this social experiment we call the United States, is that right? Two criminals make a legal citizen? Folks, that is crazy.

I have it from a pretty good source that Ann Dunham, Barry's white mother, renounced her citizenship. She married her second foreign student, Lolo Soetoro, in 1967 and moved to Indonesia. Did Barry's mother ever become legal after her return to the states? Is Barry actually Indonesian? This is actually a REAL citizenship problem for a Presidential candidate, can a person who is born an American citizen, renounce their citizenship, become a citizen of another country, and then become a "NATURAL BORN CITIZEN" again? It seems farfetched to me.

I think that we need to actually challenge Barry's candidacy and eligibility to run for President. It seems that our government is just going to look the other way as an attempt to gain more power over our lives.

Please take the time to comment.

UPDATE: You know, I THOUGHT that most people could make the assumption that this post was written in response to the idiotic drivel by the New York Times about McCains' eligibility. I was wrong. This is pointing out the stupidity of the lies printed by the Times. And it is lying stupidity.

But then lets read the comments.

Are you joking us with this here buddy? It would be an interesting argument except for a couple-a things.

1. Arguments make sense.
2. Holes you could drive a bus, make that an airbus, through.

First question I got for you is what's your source for the allegation that Ann Dunham renounced her citizenship? Is it one a them "unnamed sources" you've got to protect, just like real news folk have?

Second, marrying someone from another country would not mean you were no longer an American. Ever heard of dual-citizenship?

Third, just how would Ann's renouncing of her citizenship, after Barack Obama is born and moving to Indonesia affect his citizenship? He was already born a citizen and was a minor.

Just an FYI, children born of parents who come here undocumented are citizens because regardless of what their parents did, they did not come here illegally. Since when do we punish children for what their parents did? The purpose is to afford children, who are innocent and born on our soil, the protections of our constitution and laws.

Or am I wasting my time here expecting most bloggers, some of us do, but very many don't, to make sense?

Yes, I am joking. That SHOULD be obvious.

1. Thank you. I do realize that my argument makes sense. The same amount of sense that the New York Times article made.

2. There are no holes because this is satire.

My source is the exact same as the New York Times source that said McCain's staffers tried to talk to him about his lobbyist problem.

There is no such thing as dual-citizenship for a citizen of the United States. That is the law, sir and also a fact.

If his mother renounced her citizenship, she would do so for her minor child, that is the law, sir and also a fact.

I do understand the point of your argument about children born here, it is in my post, sir. Read it again.

And finally, my post makes the exact same amount of sense as the New York Times opinion piece on John McCain's eligibility for the Presidency. Push aside what appears to be your glaring political bias and look at facts.

If you read on, you get the impression that this guy started to believe his own Satire. The point is that Obama released his birth certificate MONTHS ago. What birthers are "requiring" is the original long form in the hospital vault. The copy you get when you request a copy is the short form. And MOST hospitals will not release the long form because it contains information that can easily be used to steal ones identity. If fact, I would wager most have never even SEEN their OWN long form Birth Certificate from the "vault". I sure haven't.

Fundamentalist Heroes: Michael Savage

Michael Savage isn't just any old whack job. He is an especially dangerous whack job. During Katrina, a 75 year old women told people what she saw inside the Dome in New Orleans. She told of horrible conditions. Michael Savage laughed at her story and questioned whether or not she had an "agenda" and what liberal organization she must work for. What a shit head!

But recently, Michael Savage has crossed the line from Crazy, to dangerous. Michael Savage, on a recent radio broadcast, talked about his insane idea that the people Obama is going to have weatherizing houses, are actually part of an elite paramilitary group that will start turning this nation into a Nazi type dictatorship. You can listen to it here:
http://jeffrey-feldman.typepad.com/frameshop/2009/03/calling-john-stewart-get-savage.html

But his insanity isn't new, just more dangerous.

Quotes from his book, Savage Nation:

When ultraliberalism takes over the mind of a city, streets are no longer safe, people are defenseless, and wackos with weapons get free handouts. (P. 14)

Back when America was still moral and whole, our meatballs were big, soft, and tasty. Today, thanks mainly to the Demoncats, the libs, and the Commu-Nazis who rule the courts, America's meatballs are small, hard, and tasteless. In other words, we have replicated the Swedish meatball, which is what socialism brings. (P. 17)

Liberalism is unraveling the very fabric of this great nation. And the sooner you understand that liberalism is a dangerous mental disorder, the sooner you can break free from this insanity that attacks the way you live, how you conduct your business, the way you worship, the choice of SUV you drive, the food you eat, and the very freedoms you enjoy. (P. 19)

As for the clipped-haired, mean-faced Demoncats who tell me I'm hateful and intolerant because I oppose the tidal wave of Turd World immigration, I say, Go find another country. Who are you to judge me? You may think unlawful immigrants sucking the nipple of taxpayer subsidized healthcare is a good thing, but you're wrong, and I'll prove it. (P. 23)

I stare at the pages of the "Old York Times" wondering what new game the liberal terrorists, with the aid of the government-media complex, are inflicting on us. Every time I read the paper, I have to decode. I'm sickened by watching the politicians, the femi-fascists, the Commu-Nazis, and the RDDBs rip apart the land I inherited. (P. 27)

Yes, he is an idiot.

Savage also hates MSNBC and women reporters.

Turn on MSNBC and you'll find the mind-slut with a big pair of glasses that they sent to Afghanistan. She looks like she went from porno into reporting. See, when they get over forty they go into news. (p. 48)

Yeah, don't think he has watched Fox News.

He hates female politicians.

Had Mr. Bush gone along with Feinstein's request, you can be sure Barbara "Babs" Boxer would demand to be in the loop-in the interest of fairness. I guarantee it, two seconds after Babs put her hands on these national secrets, she'd be on a cell phone to someone in Brooklyn:

You know what I just heard. Let me tell you, they're going to launch in two minutes. Oh yeah, it'll be over Afghanistan... No, I don't want you to tell anybody, it's just between you and me, and by the way, I had my nails done this morning. Oh, I had them done in pink, and yeah, were launching three B3 bombers in exactly twelve minutes but I tell you the truth, the jewelry I bought on QVC, it really doesn't hold up when I go on C-SPIN, you know, it looks a little cheap... (P. 50)

He also believes in racial profiling, hates all immigrants (says koreans shouldn't be allowed over here because they like to grill dog in his backyard), and believes liberals and the democrats are the party of tyranny. Yeah, go figure! Idiot!

Michael Savage is an idiot with a microphone, which makes him dangerous. He has a fairly large following of other idiots who spout his same crap too. Whats worse, he has gotten worse since his party was removed from power. This is a man to watch for. A man to fight against. A dangerous, unreasonable, man.

What Happens if China STOPS Buying US Treasuries?

MSNBC Story

BEIJING - China’s premier expressed concern Friday about its holdings of Treasuries and other U.S. debt, appealing to Washington to safeguard their value, and said Beijing is ready to expand its stimulus if economic conditions worsen.

Premier Wen Jiabao noted that Beijing is the biggest foreign creditor to the United States and called on Washington to see that its response to the global slowdown does not damage the value of Chinese holdings.

Serious question. What happens to the US economy, in which they hold massive amounts of our debt, ceases to get those loans we have been borrowing? It is a terrifying prospect. It truly is. They have us over a barrel.