Posts Tagged Obama
The Right Message: Obama’s Ramadan Remarks
4:07 pm, August 22nd, 2009 on White House
Barack Obama may be all talk, but talk is what wins the hearts and minds, to use a cliche. His recent message, included after the jump, on the Muslim month of Ramadan shows his commitment to re-engage the Muslim world.
His knowledge and apparent respect of Muslim traditions, coming from the President of the United States, is a very important step, in continuation of his speeches in Cairo and Ankara, to build a momentum of peaceful relations with the Muslim world. Read on »
Another of Obama’s Hidden Taxes
10:01 pm, August 13th, 2009 on Economy, Taxes, White House
President Barack Obama wants to raise taxes on us in some way or the other.
His latest proposal to impose new fees on banks and mortgage companies, supposedly to finance more bureaucratic oversight, will surely be passed on to us consumers in the form of new and/or higher fees and charges.
A banking industry lobbyist claims:
We think that it’s outrageous to disproportionately and unevenly impose the cost of new regulation on the top banks… The largest banks … should not be forced by the government to . . . pay the larger share of the funding costs of the [consumer financial protection agency] and regulatory oversight.
It’s not as if the banks will absorb even a single dollar of Obama’s new fees. As it is banks are increasing their fees on us consumers. With more federal charges, they will have now a valid excuse to jack ‘em up further. Of course, corporate clients will see some charges increased, but the bulk of the money will come from us, as has always happened.
We already have the FDIC, FEC, SEC, Treasury Dept. and dozens of other government agencies who provide some sort of regulatory control over the banking industry. A cheaper proposal to increase oversight, if you were so inclined, would be to expand the responsibility of one of these agencies, cut costs and streamline the whole process.
Another bureaucratic federal agency solves nothing. It just adds another tax on our plate.
ObamaBabies™: Where Art Thou?
5:18 pm, August 11th, 2009 on Liberalism
The expected surge in child-births 9 months after Mr. Barack Obama was elected in November is turning out to be, well, disappointing. Even Chicago, the holy-land of the Obamamites, has not seen a significant uptick in child-births.
I guess ObamaFans™ were too busy celebrating and getting drunk that they forgot all about the ObamaBabies™. What will now happen to the ObamaGeneration™?
Via, drudge.
Asian Solar Eclipse Prompts White House Action
6:57 pm, July 21st, 2009 on Economy, Humor, White House
Praying For Voodoo
An impending solar eclipse, that is expected to darken much of East and South Asia for upto 6 minutes at its peak, is prompting action from the White House.
US President Obama is eager to take advantage of the many religious rituals and practices designed to ward off evil and bring good luck during the solar eclipse, which is believed to be unauspicious according to local superstitions. Read on »
Milbank Criticizes Steele’s Puppetry; What About Obama’s?
4:20 pm, July 21st, 2009 on Health, Liberalism, White House
A running theme on this blog has been the media’s liberal bias and constant grovelling to Obama, Pelosi, Reid, et. al. Today is no different.
It seems that criticizing Obama amounts to racism or some other -ism, but Steele is fair game because he’s a Republican. Steele’s race and everything else is trumped by his ideology.
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post today criticizes Steele’s adherence to his consultant’s suggestions. He claimed Steel used Castellanos’ memo word-for-word for his speech, which was full of: Read on »
What’s the Rush, Barack?
4:40 pm, July 17th, 2009 on Economy, Health, White House
Obama calls upon Senators to pass his pet health-care reforms ASAP, saying:
Now is not the time to slow down
What’s the rush? Can we prioritize and fix the economy first, instead?
Obama’s Birth Certificate Still Causing Trouble + That Army Major is a Coward
1:58 pm, July 14th, 2009 on Politics, White House
Barack H. Obama’s birth certificate, that was released last year after much prodding and poking, is still causing consternation for his supporters, and some hope for conspiracy theorists…
Born Where?
Obama’s 1 Trillion in 9 Months vs. Bush’s 455 Billion in 12 Months
5:31 pm, July 13th, 2009 on Economy
The federal budget deficit has already hit 1 trillion dollars for this year, for the first time ever. And, it’s been only 9 months into the fiscal year.
That’s 1,000,000,000,000 USD. That’s a trillion with 12 zeros. 1,000 billion. 1 million million. As this guy puts it: Read on »
Regina Benjamin, Obama’s Surgeon General: Not So Partisan?
4:30 pm, July 13th, 2009 on Health, White House
Obama's Future SG
Obama’s nominee for the position of Surgeon General, Dr. Regina Benjamin, doesn’t seem as partisan as his other choices so far. Her work so far ought to solicit praise and respect:
Benjamin gained fame through her public efforts to rebuild her rural health clinic after Hurricane Katrina devastated it. She founded the Bayou La Batre Rural Health Clinic in 1990 and rebuilt it after the hurricane.
Benjamin has also served as the first black woman to head the State of Alabama Medical Association and was associate dean for rural health at the University of South Alabama’s College of Medicine. Read on »
Obama Wants to Ru(i)n Small Businesses Now
3:02 pm, July 10th, 2009 on Economy, White House
Wannabe Small Business Magnates
Already tired of running all the big banks, AIG, GM and Chrysler, President Barack H. Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner want to diversify into small businesses now.
Apparently:
A proposal being floated by senior Treasury Department officials calls for using the bailout funds to expand an existing government program that helps small companies borrow money from banks a low rates to keep their businesses going, the source said. These “working capital” loans would come with few restrictions and could be used for buying inventory, holding onto employees and paying off short-term debt.
How noble sounding!
Obama’s Stimulus Not Working … Couldn’t You Tell Before?
6:35 pm, July 9th, 2009 on Economy, White House
NYT analyzes:
With unemployment already at 9.5 percent and likely to exceed 10 percent, much higher than White House officials predicted back in February, Mr. Obama has been facing attacks that his $787 billion stimulus program was either too timid or wrong-headed or both. Now, just five months after Congress agreed on the plan, with only a fraction of the money actually out the door, Washington is debating the need for a second round of stimulus amid economic and political crosscurrents.
Wasn’t it apparent even before the stimulus was passed that it wouldn’t work?
It took $787 billion in Congressional funding, and trillions more in Treasury money, and thousands of lost jobs to make it clear that Obama’s plan will not help. And, he’s asking for more?!
Where’s Obama’s Stimulus Going?
6:28 pm, June 30th, 2009 on Economy, White House
It ain’t going to the consumers. And, its surely not helping their confidence.
According to the latest numbers…
The consumer confidence index fell to 49.3 in June from 54.8 in May. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a healthier reading of 55.0 for the month.
Oops. Ouch. Oh no. Where did all of Obie’s trillions disappear?
Abroad, we could say it all lined politicians’ pockets … how about here?
Obama Supports a Future Dictatorship in Honduras
6:38 pm, June 29th, 2009 on Foreign Policy, White House
Trying to Follow Chavez
Following another bloodless coup in Honduras, Obama says:
We believe that the coup was not legal and that President Zelaya remains the president of Honduras, the democratically elected president there…
It would be a terrible precedent if we start moving backwards into the era in which we are seeing military coups as a means of political transition, rather than democratic elections…
But, of course, you do. Because Zelaya had joined the:
leftist Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, an alliance led by Venezuela’s populist president, Hugo Chávez …
… who’s Obama’s “amigo” and, this was probably the only way his man Manuel Zelaya could be removed from office. Read on »
Obama: I am Watching (and Learning from) Iran
4:51 pm, June 19th, 2009 on Humor, Middle East, White House
The news according to media reports, and the translation into what Obama really means:
US President Barack Obama has warned Iran that “the world is watching.”
Obama: “I am watching and learning how to violently suppress dissent when I institute radical changes in the USA.”
[He] said that the way the authorities dealt with people who were “trying to be heard” would send a message to the international community.
Obama: “Your system needs improvement. I can do better. Yes, I can!”
Extending Benefits is Right, But…
11:51 am, June 17th, 2009 on Gay Marriage, White House
Jake Tapper is blogging that:
…[today] President Obama will sign a presidential memorandum extending benefits to the same-sex partners of gay and lesbian federal employees.
… it comes at a time that gay and lesbian supporters of the president are expressing anger and disappointment at his inaction on rescinding Don’t Ask/Dont Tell, his opposition to same-sex marriage, and his support for the anti-same-sex-marriage Defense of Marriage Act in a legal brief that compared same-sex unions to incestuous ones.
Denying benefits, that are already available to heterosexuals, to same-sex couples is wrong.
Government, like any employer, does not have the moral right to decide the sexual orientation or preferences of its employees. But, unlike any private business that can deny employment based on sexuality under certain circumstances, the Federal Government cannot do so. It cannot, likewise, discriminate employees based on their sexual preferences. If any benefits are provided to heterosexual couples, the same must be provided to homosexual couples.
Additionally, I feel that such benefits should not be restricted to sexual relationships alone. Any couple living together, whether the bond be forged by blood, friendship or any such ties, that declares itself to the government should be eligible for benefits.
Why does the government or any employer have the right to decide that a couple must be engaged in a sexual relationship before it can take advantage of benefits?
Now, even if Obama does make this decision, will it placate the gay rights lobby? Apparently not entirely:
“It seems to me at least to be a nice gesture, but a disappointment,” said Richard Kim, a senior editor at The Nation magazine.
But, of course, nothing is ever enough. Even when gay marriage is legal, we’ll have some other issue.
Obama may have experienced Islam – so what?
5:25 pm, June 3rd, 2009 on White House
GM enters bankruptcy; Wall Street rejoices
6:06 pm, June 2nd, 2009 on Wall Street
Anyone following Wall Street over the past few days must notice that the pending GM bankruptcy had little or no negative effect on the Dow Jones Index, or the S&P.
GM officially entered bankruptcy in the first hour yesterday, and the DJIA just went up, up and up, as evidenced from this screenshot from Google Finance: Read on »
Losing High-Profile Moderate Republicans
The GOP may be set to lose at least 3 high profile Republicans very soon. Obama picked the very moderate NY Congressman John McHugh as Secretary of the Army. The White House claims:
John is committed to keeping America’s Army the best-trained, the best-equipped and the best-led land force the world has ever seen
Bush’s folly to be replaced by Obama’s folly
12:53 am, May 27th, 2009 on White House
Obama is playing the race card very nicely by nominating Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. The NYT gleefully declares that Obama has once again proved to be The One by
“choosing a daughter of Puerto Rican parents raised in a Bronx public housing project to become the nation’s first Hispanic justice.”
First of all, justices to the Supreme Court should be nominated on their legal acumen, experience and intellect, not on race, religion, gender or any other factor. NY Senators Schumer and Gillibrand apparently consider only race to be the deciding factor as to who should be nominated. In a letter to Obama, the two claim:
“It’s long overdue that a Latino sit on the United States Supreme Court.” Read on »
Obama to exempt CIA torturers?
5:46 am, April 18th, 2009 on Foreign Policy, Politics, White House
Quite honestly, two of the very few things that Obama has done so far that I have approved of is the ban on torture and other extra-legal procedures of obtaining information, and the proposed closure of Guantanamo. But, both these approvals have to be strongly qualified.
When does the honeymoon end?
7:22 pm, April 14th, 2009 on Media, White House
It has been 84 days since Obama was sworn in, but our honeymoon just doesn’t seem to end. Clinton’s lovemaking with the media lasted barely a few weeks. Bush Jr. wasn’t really accorded that pleasure because the media was all to ready to accept Gore as their President.
But, Obama continues to enjoy his superstar status in the domestic and international media establishment. His media claque continues to blindly applaud everything he does, even if it involves some major flip-flopping. I decided to search WashingtonPost.com, an important representative of the media establishment, today for stories on Obama. This is what I found:
Just like any other of the 190…
7:23 pm, April 1st, 2009 on Europe, Foreign Policy, White House
Gordon Brown, Prime Minister of Great Britain, was treated like any reliable ally of the United States ought to be : just like any of the 190 other nations in the world, with a DVD box set of popular Hollywood movies, with Region 1 encoding, unplayable anywhere outside the US. No private dinners, no Camp David, just a quick meeting and out you go. Brown could have been a minor African ruler, says the National Review.
This despite the fact Mr. Brown is unlike any of the other 190. His country is the 6th largest economy in the world by GDP. Britain is also the staunchest ally of the United States, having supported its endeavours in Afghanistan and Iraq from the beginning. The UK is the only country that has actually provided a significant number of troops for both wars and continues to spend billions of dollars each year to pay for two of America’s wars.
This reminds me of the way Rajiv Gandhi, a former PM of India, treated the King of Nepal during an official visit to Delhi in the 1980s. The King was made to wait outside Gandhi’s office for several hours while Gandhi conducted other business, including playing golf and having lunch. Albeit the comparison is not perfect, but allies and friends don’t treat each other this way. Nepal has had a long relationship with India, just as Britain has had with the US. UK has proved over and over again that it is the only reliable ally for the United States in Europe.
It is understandable that Obama wants to break away from GWB’s policies. It is also understandable that he is too “busy” dealing with the economic crisis to pay any attention to minor details of protocol. Obama just doesn’t have time for dealing with foreign affairs at this time. There are, however, simply no excuses for the way Brown was treated.
The blame lies squarely with the official charged with handling Brown’s visit. Given the high level of specialization these days, this official is most likely only responsible for visits by foreign dignitaries. Is he also too busy with the economy to buy a more appropriate gift to mark Brown’s first official visit to meet the new President?
Etc. Etc. Etc.
WSJ- Xstrata, Glencore Agree to Terms 9: 16 am, February 7, 2012Anglo-Swiss miner Xstrata formally announced plans to merge with commodities titan Glencore International to create a $90 billion, sector-straddling giant. […]
- Wal-Mart Names China Chief 9: 14 am, February 7, 2012Wal-Mart Stores tapped Greg Foran as president and CEO of Wal-Mart China as the retailer looks to regain its footing after several missteps in one of its most important growth markets. […]
- For Sale: AIG's Subprime Bonds 9: 00 am, February 7, 2012Five Wall Street banks have been invited by the New York Fed to bid for a multibillion-dollar bundle of risky mortgage bonds it owns as a result of its 2008 rescue of AIG. […]
- Japan Confirms 'Stealth' Intervention 8: 59 am, February 7, 2012Japan continued to conduct "stealth" interventions in the currency market after its highly publicized yen-selling campaign on Oct. 31, data released by the Finance Ministry confirmed. […]
- Toyota Shows Optimism Despite Gloom 8: 24 am, February 7, 2012Toyota Motor Corp.reported a weaker net profit in the fiscal third quarter, but raised its full-year outlook, citing solid worldwide sales. […]
- Europe Stocks Slightly Up 8: 21 am, February 7, 2012European stock markets opened slightly up, with market participants continuing to exercise caution as the Greek debt situation remains unresolved. […]
- ArcelorMittal Earnings Slump 7: 01 am, February 7, 2012ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker by volume and revenue, said that slowing global demand for steel led to a wider fourth-quarter loss from a year earlier and lower full-year results. […]
- Oracle Seeks New Trial in SAP Case 6: 51 am, February 7, 2012Oracle rejected a $272 million award in its intellectual-property theft case against SAP, an expected move that sets the stage for a new trial between the bitter software rivals. […]
- Profit Falls at UBS 6: 37 am, February 7, 2012Presenting its first set of earnings under new Chief Executive Sergio Ermotti, UBS reported a 76% fall in fourth-quarter net profit, as trading in shares and bonds slowed. The Swiss bank also said its bonus pool will be cut 40%. […]
- Caesars Shows Some Tarnish as It Returns to Markets 5: 50 am, February 7, 2012Caesars aims to sell around 1.4% of itself in an offering that values the casino giant at around $23.7 billion—compared with around $28 billion when it was taken private four years ago. […]
- Xstrata, Glencore Agree to Terms 9: 16 am, February 7, 2012
- BBC
- America eases sanctions on Burma 5: 43 am, February 7, 2012The US eases one of the sanctions it levels against Burma, as authorities officially recognise pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi's election bid. […]
- Syria army continues Homs assault 5: 41 am, February 7, 2012The Syrian army resumes heavy shelling in the restive city of Homs as Russia's foreign minister is due in Damascus for talks. […]
- VIDEO: One-minute World News 5: 34 am, February 7, 2012Watch the latest news summary from BBC World News. International news updated 24 hours a day. […]
- Court hears social care challenge 5: 05 am, February 7, 2012The Supreme Court is to hear a case challenging the way councils in England can consider their finances when assessing people for social care. […]
- Search on for Philippine missing 4: 39 am, February 7, 2012Search and rescue efforts are continuing for survivors of a 6.7 magnitude quake that shook the central Philippines on Monday, leaving dozens dead or missing. […]
- Israel condemns Fatah-Hamas move 4: 29 am, February 7, 2012Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu condemns a unity deal between the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, saying it damages prospects for peace. […]
- Venezuela holds Colombia fugitive 4: 22 am, February 7, 2012Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos says one of the country's most wanted paramilitary leaders, Martin Llanos, has been captured in Venezuela. […]
- 'Lone wolf' terror threat warning 4: 02 am, February 7, 2012The UK could face a growing threat from "lone wolf" terrorists returning from fighting overseas in the next few years, a think tank warns. […]
- MPs demand law against stalking 3: 55 am, February 7, 2012A new law making stalking a specific offence is needed in England and Wales to stop harassment ending in violence, MPs and peers have said. […]
- Macquarie falls on profit warning 3: 41 am, February 7, 2012Macquarie Group, the largest investment bank in Australia, says it expects full year profits to drop 25% as a weak market hurts its business. […]
- Five killer whales 'sue' SeaWorld 3: 34 am, February 7, 2012Five killer whales are named as plaintiffs in a court case arguing that they deserve the same constitutional protection from slavery as humans. […]
- Accounts 'expose Treasury flaws' 3: 00 am, February 7, 2012The Treasury is criticised for the way it monitors government spending and manages risk, in a Commons committee report. […]
- Italy acts on Russia gas shortage 2: 03 am, February 7, 2012Italy activates emergency measures to conserve gas supplies as freezing weather continues to grip the country and much of Europe. […]
- Prince leads Dickens celebrations 1: 55 am, February 7, 2012The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will lead global celebrations marking the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens's birth later. […]
- 'Invader' drives ladybird decline 1: 23 am, February 7, 2012Fast declines in some UK and European ladybirds are being caused by the spread of the invasive harlequin species, scientists show. […]
- America eases sanctions on Burma 5: 43 am, February 7, 2012
When Can Bernie Madoff Invest My Money Again?
