Word Salads

Vegetarians must have loved the Democrat debate last night ... it was nothing but a bunch of word salads ... and Biden's lettuce was a little wilted. All the front-runner candidates offered panel-tested and over-rehearsed answers that seldom matched the questions asked. 

The other missing ingredient was genuineness ... and this is the Achilles heel of the once-party of Jefferson and Jackson. These bozos cannot win the presidency by being a bunch of Chatty Cathy robots.

The degree of melodramatic arm-waving, spittle-flecked mendacity, pathetic pandering, silly zingers and desperate demagoguery was mostly universal and sadly, quite disappointing. 

Again, word salads were the entire menu of the evening. Joe Biden got the mercy vote and survived  only because he was the least emotive and obnoxious ... but not by much.

The Swamp

Washington, DC is not just s swamp. It is a toxic soup of hypocrisy, malfeasance, elitism, payoffs, dipsomania, mendacity, egomania, sexual harassment, lassitude, pomposity, racism, grandstanding, anti-semitism, thievery, stupidity, spendthrifts, maliciousness, subterfuge, pettiness and group think ... maybe even murder.

DC would be so much more hospitable with alligators, panthers, caimans, water moccasins, crocodiles and pythons.

Obvious Truth #42

There seems no limit to the pettiness, mendacity and self-serving behavior that most politicians and government bureaucrats can and often do display. President Trump’s biggest flaw is that he evokes this type of despicable behavior on the part of his political opponents ... instead of inspiring them to reach down for their better 1/10th.

Mendacity

Lies are good.  They add texture to the drab truth -- Anon.

Stiletto

I realize that the New York Post is a right-leaning newspaper (one of the few).  But Michael Goodwin has a devastating column there today pillorying President Obama for his mendacity and deceitfulness.  Rather than just reference his Page Six column as I usually do, I think today I will quote it in its entirety here:

When I first saw the headline saying Bill Clinton was advising President Obama to “honor his commitment,” I had to laugh. The idea of Monica Lewinsky’s boyfriend as moral referee always cracks me up.  

Then I got to wondering. Which commitment was Clinton talking about?  

Is it the one Obama made to the Israeli people, that he had their backs and would never let Iran get a nuclear weapon? 

 Or was it his promise to enforce a “red line” in Syria?  

Or maybe it was Obama’s promise to “never rest” until we caught the terrorists who killed our ambassador and three other Americans in Libya? 

Or was Clinton talking about the many times the president said he would “never rest” until every American who wanted a job had one?  

Or maybe he was talking about the pledge to change the tone in Washington? 

Or to go through the budget “line by line” and cross out the waste driving up the deficit?  

You get the picture — any of those whoppers would qualify. But, of course, Clinton was talking about the broken promise of the moment, the one where Obama vowed that “if you like your health insurance, you can keep it.”  

It ranks as one of the biggest presidential lies of modern times, all the more so because Obama repeated it 30 times. The fallout of millions being forced from their policies, an experience exacerbated by the hapless Web site, has created a crisis of confidence so vast, it threatens to swallow the second term.  

So Clinton, who falsely swore he never had sex with that woman, spoke from experience when he told an interviewer, “The president should honor his commitment to those people and let them keep what they got.”  

He knows the Big Lie is shredding Obama’s ace in the hole — his personal credibility. The key to Obama’s political success is that his job-approval ratings generally have been higher than the public’s view of his policies. From the economy to health care to foreign policy, voters were mostly negative on the policies. 

But when it came to Obama himself, more Americans, often a majority, said they liked him, trusted him and believed he had their interests at heart.  

ObamaCare is breaking that bond — and creating a domino effect. The public is turning ever harder against his policies, with only 31 percent now supporting him on the economy and 32 percent on immigration in the latest Pew poll. Most important, they are also giving a thumbs-down on his overall performance. Pew finds that only 41 percent approve of his handling of the presidency, down 14 points since December, while 53 percent disapprove. 

And Quinnipiac late Tuesday found he’s hit a new low with 39 percent approval, while a majority said he’s not honest.  

No president can lead from such a deep, discredited hole. And his ratings are likely to keep sinking because, once the Web site is fixed, millions more “shoppers” will get sticker shocks from the new policies ObamaCare requires. 

And next year comes the employer mandate, which will shake up the policies and prices of millions of others.  

So Clinton’s advice that Obama “let them keep what they got,” is, in a vacuum, a perfectly logical escape route. But even if it were possible, the reversal would be a dagger in the heart of ObamaCare. The whole Rube Goldberg scheme depends on using insurance policies to distribute wealth from healthy young Americans to older, sicker ones. 

Letting people keep the policies they have effectively repeals the president’s signature achievement. Clinton’s advice, then, won’t fly. But if he, or anybody else, has another idea about how Obama can wriggle out of the mess he created, they should speak up very quickly. 

Otherwise, it will be too late to make a difference.

I only wish that I had written this stiletto.

Bad Apples

President Obama just labeled those health insurance companies which are now dropping hundreds of thousands of their clients as “bad apples.”  Quite a tame appellation … no?  Particularly for our pugilistic President.  I kinda think that Mr. Obamacare’s real feelings are quite a bit darker.  Health insurance companies are dropping their clients pell-mell because they can’t afford to insure them under the tenants of Obamacare.  And when the employer mandate kicks in next October (perhaps delayed again until after the mid-term elections?) the total number of Americans who will eventually lose their current policies was secretly estimated by our government at around 93 million!  (See: Forbes Blockbuster Story).

Now, these healthcare insurance companies greedily went along with Obamacare in the first place because they thought that they would tap into a huge 30 million or so block of the then uninsured.  (I almost said uninsured Americans, but I think that might have been misleading.)  In essence, our nanny government was promising to reward them for not objecting to Obama’s takeover of healthcare by making them partners in this crime.  Now comes the cruel light of dawn.

These “bad apples” trusted our fearless leader and will, unfortunately, never recoup anywhere near the number of clients that they will be losing.  And this is not because of a non-functioning HealthCare.gov website (it eventually will be kludged together).  It is because something like 90% of those now getting replacement healthcare insurance coverage are getting it under “expanded Medicaid” (a sotto voce part of the Obamacare law) ... see: Powerline Story … for details about this newest government entitlement (see: Affordable Care Act Tenant).

In a way, these “bad apples” will get their comeuppance for trusting President Obama and his Chicago consiglieres.  The real crime now occurring is not the mendacity of the Obama administration in its false promises about "keeping your insurance and doctor … period."  It is the coming devastation of America's healthcare insurance industry … to be followed by the likely gutting of the healthcare system itself.

How’s that for audacity?

Meltdown

Obamacare is an unmitigated disaster.  Not only is the insurance sign-up process in utter disarray (see: Test Pattern), but we now find out that hundreds of thousands of medical insurance holders are being canceled by their current providers because of the crippling tenants of this law (see: Daily Caller Story).  And these poor schlubs very often cannot find a new insurer because of the cyber-Hindenburg called HealthCare.gov … and, if they are somehow lucky enough to escape this burning zeppelin onto a new provider, the costs are frequently prohibitively high … much higher than their previous insurer (see: Forbes Story ... a very good read!).

Yes, I know our dear leader promised that such shenanigans would not happen with his signature piece of legislation (the un-Affordable Healthcare Law) that passed both houses of Congress without one single Republican vote … but he was once again lying … lying to an American public whose starry-eyed idolatry makes them oblivious to his mendacity.  But perhaps now enough of them will soon realize their idiocy and repent?

Nah!

Empty Suit

I can’t help myself … and neither can Paul Mirengoff of the Powerline blog.  We both view President Barack Obama as an empty suit.  For Paul’s analysis, see: Powerline Blog.  I know that I am an evil, evil person … and a racist to boot.  I should be ashamed of myself for such an unpatriotic attitude … but rational thought keeps imposing itself. 

Over the last five years Obama’s artful politics keeps trumping his awful policy … over and over again.  His band of Chicago thugs have kowtowed much of the media into reverence for his craven claptrap while ignoring his inability to accomplish anything of value. As for my reasoning … let’s just say that I think Obama needs to be complemented for doing the most with the least of anyone in history.  Perhaps he should win a Nobel Prize?

And excuse me for being so partisan, but I also believe that John Kerry, Eric Holder, and Chuck Hagel are equally vacuous.  Obama with his arrogance, Kerry with his haughtiness, Holder with his mendacity, and Hagel with his ineptitude can easily be confused with the four horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Stronger blog post to follow.

Love

Can you use an extra fifty thousand tax-free dollars?  Well our generous government has concocted a way for perspicacious individuals to claim such largess.  All you need to do is to get a “Love” form from the Department of Agriculture (USDA) within the next 88 days and, on it, claim that your deceased mother or grandmother or sister filed for a farm loan from this government agency in the 1990’s and was denied one because of her gender.  If you think I’m blowing smoke, see: The "Love" Program. And you need not worry about being thrown in the poky for concocting lies, you won’t.  Nobody will be investigated for mendacity in this program … it’s written into the law.  What you say is swallowed, er, accepted, as gospel.  So no need to fret.  Just spend a day spinning a good agrarian yarn and the government will reward you for your creative prose.

And, if you are lucky enough to have a black or Hispanic deceased close relative (or can make one up), you might also get an equal amount from the “Pigford” or “Garcia” programs also run out of the USDA.  Just think about that … $150,000 in Uncle Sam checks that are just waiting for you for the asking.  (And you wonder why we are running such monumental fiscal deficits?)

Then, when you get your check(s), all I ask is a 10% commission for this heads-up.  I think that's only fair.

The Fog of Mendacity

Chrysler Peapod

Here is a must-read blog entry on Powerline ... see Chrysler's Resurrection.  Prepare yourself to get sick to your stomach and again wonder if those bozos in Washington are ever being straight with the American public.  And, also see a clear example of how an august newspaper such as the New York Times can flack for the current administration.

The story is about Chrysler and its $12.5 billion bailout from the American taxpayers in 2009.  Most of the details are in this well-documented story and its contained links, but the bottom line is that, for all this generosity on the U.S. taxpayers' part, we have ended up taking a $1.3 billion haircut and also being on the hook for a $3.5 billion loan to Fiat (which recently finished purchasing 51% of Chrysler.)  This loan is ostensibly meant to allow Chrysler to develop cars such as the Peapod shown above ... but it will most likely never be paid back.

Now the other 49% of Chrysler is owned by the United Auto Workers which is a clear recipe for disaster ... anytime union workers negotiate with themselves over pay raises and work rules, they always end up winning in the short term but losing big in the long run.  Yes, you say, they do have jobs currently ... but with salaries that are effectively being paid for by the U.S. taxpayer.

Another part of this saga that isn't told directly therein is that the bondholders in the original Chrysler were virtually wiped out (30 cents on the dollar) and that the original stockholders now have lost something like 90% of their investment -- a very convoluted calculation. (In a traditional bankruptcy, they would have probably faired much better.)  If you are tempted to dismiss these losses to the better good of Chrysler's staying in business, please reflect on how many pension plans, 401Ks, and IRAs have lost oodles and boodles in this transaction ... just maybe one of yours.

So, next year, when you hear The Barry bragging about how he saved Chrysler and 115,000 "auto-industry" jobs ... with very little cost to the U.S. taxpayer, you will know "the rest of the story."

The Cover Up

“It’s never the crime but the cover up that takes politicians down.” Now, the triumvirate of Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Joe Sestak have short-order cooked up a whopper of a story to explain away Sestak’s three-month-old allegation of being offered a job in Obama’s administration (Navy Secretary?) in exchange for dropping out of the Pennsylvania Democrat Senatorial primary race in favor of Arlen Specter.

I’m not even going to parse all the inconsistencies and suspicious circumstances surrounding this pre-Memorial-Day rationalization of this possible White House felony. I’m just going to say that this cover up is so transparent as to be embarrassing. I herein predict that this sophomoric mendacity is now the beginning of the end to this mob of Chicago thugs’ jack boot on the throat of the American populus. It may take into 2011 for this all to transpire, but I’ve seen this B-movie too many times before.