President Obama and Prime Minister Brown's Press conference

On the eve of the G-20 President Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown discuss the economic situation at hand and the impact that doing nothing or to little could have on a global scale.

The full 50 minute video is below.

The Weekly Presidential Address April 4 2009

President Barack Obama
Weekly Address

Saturday, April 4, 2009

The full text of the President's speech is below the video.

In this new century, we live in a world that has grown smaller and more interconnected than at any time in history. Threats to our nation’s security and economy can no longer be kept at bay by oceans or by borders drawn on maps. The terrorists who struck our country on 9/11 plotted in Hamburg, trained in Kandahar and Karachi, and threaten countries across the globe. Cars in Boston and Beijing are melting ice caps in the Arctic that disrupt weather patterns everywhere. The theft of nuclear material from the former Soviet Union could lead to the extermination of any city on earth. And reckless speculation by bankers in New York and London has fueled a global recession that is inflicting pain on workers and families around the world and across America.

The challenges of our time threaten the peace and prosperity of every single nation, and no one nation can meet them alone. That is why it is sometimes necessary for a President to travel abroad in order to protect and strengthen our nation here at home. That is what I have done this week.

I began my trip by attending a summit of the G20 – the countries that represent the world’s largest economies – because we know that the success of America’s economy is inextricably linked to that of the global economy. If people in other countries cannot spend, that means they cannot buy the goods we produce here in America, which means more lost jobs and more families hurting. Just yesterday, we learned that we lost hundreds of thousands more jobs last month, adding to the millions we’ve lost since this recession began. And if we continue to let banks and other financial institutions around the world act recklessly and irresponsibly, that affects institutions here at home as credit dries up, and people can’t get loans to buy a home or car, to run a small business or pay for college.

Ultimately, the only way out of a recession that is global in scope is with a response that is global in coordination. That is why I’m pleased that after two days of careful negotiation, the G20 nations have agreed on a series of unprecedented steps that I believe will be a turning point in our pursuit of a global economic recovery. All of us are now moving aggressively to get our banks lending again. All of us are working to spur growth and create jobs. And all of us have agreed on the most sweeping reform of our financial regulatory framework in a generation – reform that will help end the risky speculation and market abuses that have cost so many people so much.

I also met this past week with the leaders of China and Russia, working to forge constructive relationships to address issues of common concern, while being frank with each other about where we disagree. President Hu and I agreed that the link between China’s economy and ours is of great mutual benefit, and we established a new Strategic and Economic Dialogue between the U.S. and China. President Medvedev and I discussed our shared commitment to a world without nuclear weapons, and we signed a declaration putting America and Russia on the path to a new treaty to further reduce our nuclear arsenals. Tomorrow, I will lay out additional steps we must take to secure the world’s loose nuclear materials and stop the spread of these deadly weapons.

Finally, I met yesterday with our NATO allies and asked them for additional civilian support and assistance for our efforts in Afghanistan. That is where al Qaeda trains, plots, and threatens to launch their next attack. And that attack could occur in any nation, which means that every nation has a stake in ensuring that our mission in Afghanistan succeeds.

As we have worked this week to find common ground and strengthen our alliances, we have not solved all of our problems. And we have not agreed on every point or every issue in every meeting. But we have made real and unprecedented progress – and will continue to do so in the weeks and months ahead.

Because in the end, we recognize that no corner of the globe can wall itself off from the threats of the twenty-first century, or from the needs and concerns of fellow nations. The only way forward is through shared and persistent efforts to combat fear and want wherever they exist. That is the challenge of our time. And if we move forward with courage and resolve, I am confident that we will meet this challenge.

Thank you.

The Weekly WTF?!: The Obama Arrogance

Ah, I love the foul stench of arrogance in the morning and afternoon and evening and pretty much whenever our megalomaniacal president opens his mouth. He seems in particular to have doused himself with it this week, as freely as if his arrogance were the cheap cologne you’d find on a urine-soaked stumble bum trying to clean himself up for a job interview as a garbage man.

In remarks he made in Germany, Barack Hussein Obama, the leader of the nation everyone else turns to when they can’t fix their problems, and of the free world (a term I’m not quite sure he grasps the gravity of yet), labeled his own country “arrogant” and “dismissive” toward its allies.

His use of these incongruous words came during the same European b. Hussein Rules Tour! as such remarkable events as:

• He joined the New League of (Gov’t Cheese) Justice, snuggling up with the corrupt, the corrupted, and the downright incompetent, like a school boy lusting after a gaggle of teenage sexters, pledging to print more worthless money than George “It’s Been a Very Good Crisis” Soros made off with your tanked investments, to contribute to Dr. “Gordon Brown” Evil’s $1 trillion plan to spread socialism, bankruptcy, and eternal poverty on earth.
• We learn today from Politico that Obama, when meeting with bailout-fed bankers over the hot-button issue of high compensation, the president quipped: “My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.” This highly skilled use of the putdown happens to be keenly reminiscent of how The One fended off “negotiations” with Republican Congressional leaders over Porkulus, when he said: “I won.” Well. I guess the president has a highly developed sense of deflecting any argument (when he’s in private, not requiring a feed on his teleprompter from Gibbsy, et al) with the oldest form of comeback: Screw You!
• The American Dream gave a cursory, incredibly standoffish nod when greeting the Queen of England…yet bowed like a servant to the King of Saudi Arabia, as if he were trying to kiss his shoes (and maybe look up his robes).

It wouldn’t be so bad if he weren’t going out of his way to help America run headlong into the mainstream socialist apocalypse that most among the G-20 nations has become. All he’d have to do is get off the b. Hussein Campaign Train and walk into the back alleys of some of the nations he’s touring, where he’d find high unemployment, a culture of welfare, and a general lack of understanding (from the masses, that is) of the concept of freedom.

It wouldn’t be so bad if he weren’t treating the monarch of our greatest ally with diffidence (or was he being, to use his word, “dismissive”?) while at the same time going so out of his way to pay hyperbolic respect to the monarch of a hotbed of terrorism as to appear subservient. It is clear the Obama Administration is attempting to “win over” Hamas, Iran, Saudi Arabia, the Taliban, and any other rogue or “credible” Islamic state or group with flattery, when, if he had anyone in his administration who did research, he’d know that these people see any overt attempts to treat them as if they walk on water as weak, and will likely only generate flatulence (in the form of IEDs, or dirty nukes) in reciprocation.

It wouldn’t also be so bad back home, if there weren’t 62 million people who were cast under the spell that spewed from Obama’s forked tongue when, on September 12, 2008, in New Hampshire, while sprinting (is that racist?) to be the leader of the (soon-to-be-former?) free world, he said this: "I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes."

Only to have His Arrogance raise the succubus (federal) tax on a pack of cigarettes on Wednesday by 62 cents. Anyone willing to bet their salary that a majority of those who smoke earn less than $250,000 a year?

Mr. President: Since you’re still a Marlboro Man, got a butt I could burn? I’d light up one of my own if I could, but I can’t afford anything these days, let alone your arrogance. And neither can the rest of us.

This week’s b. Hussein arrogance would therefore be a FAIL!

For more radical conservative domestic terrorist biased snark, visit Feed Your ADHD.

Obama comes to the United Kingdom

Well it was good to see the president visit the United Kingdom, behind the overwhelming feeling that the security forces had that attitude” he is not going to get it on my watch “ worried about the embarrassment of even attempt on Obama’s life, meanwhile there was all the patting and handshaking and positive spin doctoring from the worlds most powerful leaders in the G20 summit. But one thing did seem to happen they walked away with an historic agreement with a structured control on the financial world. Whilst the protesters, were held at arms length at all cost, even the ones who had purchased an old military armoured light tank from the 50’s painted it blue with RIOT on the side!!

What this Historic deal means to the average person I am not sure, but I am accepting one thing, it will mean in the future we all will be able to afford less. This we might moan about, but it is nothing from real poverty, the ones who have no right or access to health care, education, even clean water. There has even been a some help thrown in for the third world, but they also need to make sure that extream poverty situation's are not exsiting in their own countries as well.

Obama and the first lady got to meet the queen, this I believe was their highlight of their trip once again there security was so it was a private audience. Once again security was so tight it was like turning THE BEAST around in Downing Street. I am glad that both president Obama and Medvedev, as the USA had breathing space after the collapse of hard line communism and Russia as country was struggling. Now she is rising again, and dialogue needs to be maintained to ensure we do not go back to the days of Ragan and the Frankie goes to Hollywood days.

Obama is off to France now visit Sarkozy, I wonder if Obama will play him the recording of the prank call to Sarah Palin, I would if I was him! And there they have no Royal Family to meet as the French cut all their heads off in the French revolution.

the Light Switch Tax

House Republicans are now making a claim that President Obama wants to pay for health care by charging a brutal light switch tax that will crush the average tax payer.

An excerpt from the house Republican Statement:

"The administration raises revenue for nationalized health care through a series of new taxes, including a light switch tax that would cost every American household $3,128 a year,"

Let’s read that one again.

"The administration raises revenue for nationalized health care through a series of new taxes, including a light switch tax that would cost every American household $3,128 a year,"

This alleged "light switch tax" is a reference to Obama's proposal to tax power companies for carbon dioxide emissions and allow companies to trade emissions credits among themselves. That's called a cap-and-trade program, and Republicans say the companies would just pass the tax on to electricity consumers.

To give there claim a little more bite, they site a report based on a similar Cap and Trade proposal would raise $366 billion a year. The report couldn’t be based on the Obama Administration proposal because it hasn’t been publicly detailed yet.

The report was put together by M.I.T. and can be viewed here if you like.

What House Republican’s did is make an assumption based on basic math and the idea that the cost of the “similar” Cap and Trade program would be passed on to consumers, or in this case to tax payers.

The “similar” Cap and Trade program would cost $366 billion dollars per year.
There are 114 million households in America. (I don’t know about you but I am not an economist. Even though I am not an economist, I suspect there are a few other items that need to be factored in here.)

If you divide the cost by the number of households you come up with $3,128.205 (you can’t forget the half cent if you want to make a real impact here)

To the House Republican’s credit on March 20th they took there assumption and determination made by use of basic math and contacted one of the reports authors at M.I.T., John Reilly, to make sure that the assumption they were making was correct.

It turns out that the House Republican assumption wasn’t correct. Mr. Reilly even told them why the assumptions they were making were not correct.

According to the Light Switch article at Politifact.com Mr. Reilly stated in an interview, “It’s wrong in so many ways it hard to begin.” Mr. Reilly went on to add “I had explained why the estimate they had was probably incorrect and what they should do to correct it, but I think this wrong number was already floating around by that time.”

OK, we know the program will end up costing us, the consumers something in the long run, but exactly how much it will cost will not be known until the actual Cap and Trade program becomes public knowledge.

The “similar” program did detail how much that program would boil down to per household and per person. According to that report in 2015 the net cost to individuals would be $30.89 per person. If you were to use the 2.56 average household size that the House Republican’s used, you would be looking at $79.078 of additional cost per household per year. That is just a little bit different than the House Republican’s estimate of $3,128.20

I don’t know folks, what do you think?
Should this one get a nomination for the Weekly WTF?!

South seeking solid alliance against North

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak took time during the G-20 to stress the importance of a strong international response from the world’s leaders if Pyongyang carries out the planned launch of what they claim to be a rocket carrying a satellite into orbit. The launch is expected to occur some time between Saturday April 4 and Wednesday April 7.

The U.S., South Korea and Japan suspect the North Korean rocket launch to be a cover for a Long range ballistic missile test. The North Korean’s are currently prohibited from any rocket or missile activity under a UN Security Council agreement. The North Korean government has been notified of the possible actions should they persist and proceed with the launch but have answered the warnings of sanctions with threats of war.

North Korea has informed Japan’s Government that if they attempt to interfere with the planned launch, North Korea will consider it an act of war. According to a South Korean official North Korean radio is stating "If the U.S. imperialists dare to infiltrate spy planes into our airspace to interfere with our peaceful satellite launch preparations, our revolutionary armed forces will mercilessly shoot them down,”

Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso stated "A launch by North Korea would be a clear violation of a U.N. resolution," and that if they proceed with the launch they intend to take North Korea to the Security Council. Aso also said "On this issue, Japan, Korea and the United States need to work closely together,"

Japan has strategically placed battleships armed with antimissile systems off its northern coast line. They have also stationed Patriot missile interceptors around Tokyo to knock down any wayward rocket debris that might fall in that area. Japan has stated that they have no intention of trying to shoot down the rocket but only any possible debris that might threaten Japans citizens.

Currently South Korea and Japan have been joined by England and Australia but have yet to receive backing from the US, Russia or China. It is widely believed that the US will back the attempt to seek UN sanctions against North Korea if they do launch, many doubt that China or Russia will be on board with the attempt. France’s stance may end up being the deciding factor in the end.

The UN Security Council is made up of 15 members. 10 are elected from the member body and 5 are permanent members.

The 5 permanent founding members are France, England, The United States, Russia and China.

Presidents' Obama and Medvedev agree to START over

In a sidebar meeting at the G-20 summit, the two Presidents’ agree that they will renew discussions on reducing the two nations' warhead stockpiles. This will be the first Nuclear Arms discussions between the two nations’ since 1997. Both President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that they want to "move beyond Cold War mentalities".

The 1991 agreement between the two nuclear superpowers known as START is set to expire on December 5 of this year. START or the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty limited the two nations’ arsenals to between 1,700 and 2,200 warheads. Now might be the right time to start discussing what comes next since doing so while Bush 43 was in office was not an option. Putin and Bush were far from being on the best of terms. But waiting much longer may risk lifting the limitations that are in place and opening a whole new Arms Race and “Cold War” scenario.

The two Presidents’ stated "that the era when our countries viewed each other as enemies is long over." But this is America and Russia we are talking about. The two seem to get along as well as oil and water at the best of times. Regardless, any attempts to reach a new agreement would have to overcome some rather major obstacles. The plans to deploy an anti-missile defense shield to guard against nuclear threats such as Iran is just one of those obstacles. Both Obama and Medvedev acknowledged that "differences remain over the purposes of deployment of missile-defense assets in Europe". "We discussed new possibilities for mutual international cooperation in the field of missile defense," according to a joint statement the two released. "The relationship between offensive and defensive arms will be discussed by the two governments."

An excerpt from a speech made by President Obama earlier today:

“Let me just make a brief comment. I am very grateful
to President Medvedev for taking the time to visit with me today. I'm
particularly gratified because prior to the meeting our respective teams had
worked together and had developed a series of approaches to areas of common
interest that I think present great promise.

As I've said in the past, I think that over the
last several years the relationship between our two countries has been allowed
to drift. And what I believe we've begun today is a very constructive dialogue
that will allow us to work on issues of mutual interest, like the reduction of
nuclear weapons and the strengthening of our nonproliferation treaties; our
mutual interest in dealing with terrorism and extremism that threatens both
countries; our mutual interest in economic stability and restoring growth around
the world; our mutual interest in promoting peace and stability in areas like
the Middle East.

So I am very encouraged by the leadership of the President.
I'm very grateful that he has taken the time to visit. I am especially excited
about the fact that the President extended an invitation for me to visit Moscow
to build on some of the areas that we discussed on today. And I have agreed to
visit Moscow in July, which we both agreed was a better time than January to
visit.

And my hope is that given the constructive conversations
that we've had today, the joint statements that we will be issuing both on
reductions of nuclear arsenals, as well as a range of other areas of interest,
that what we're seeing today is the beginning of new progress in the
U.S.-Russian relations. And I think that President Medvedev's leadership is --
has been critical in allowing that progress to take place.”

The Top 10 WTF?! of March 2009

The economy is in shambles, but the most happening city in the country is Washington, D.C., the center of the federal government and the “free” world, even though no resident has Congressional representation. WTF?!

With THAT, we give you the WTF?! ("Washington Total Fails"…and you thought it meant something else!) for the month of March, posted in linear order rather than lowest to highest ranking...well...because I don't do anything normal:

1. President Barack Hussein Obama firing the CEO of a private company. GM CEO Rick Wagoner was a grade A buffoon, an incompetent who sucked more money from your pockets than you’ll ever see in a million lifetimes, but it’s never been the federal government’s business to handle personnel decisions at non-government companies…until Wyatt Earp Obama rode into D.C. on his high horse. To top it off, Obama’s stated preference (as of 3/30/2009) for the future of GM (and Chrysler) is structured bankruptcy (the correct path for dying business models in the first place), this coming after they’ve chewed through a combined $17 billion in newly printed cash from the government mint...then asked for more. It took Obama way too long to figure out how to address the situation, to demand “deadlines” for the companies to write concrete plans for remaining viable -- and when he finally picked a direction, he didn’t even consult Congress about canning someone who doesn’t work for the government. Now, who’s selectively playing “I’m the decider” with little or no Constitutional authority? FAIL!

2. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi using federal property as her personal travel agency. Booking use of Department of Defense airplanes, personnel, time, and expenses… then making last-minute changes and cancellations. Demanding planes already booked for other uses, then expressing outrage when they weren’t available. Requesting an Army escort and three military planes to transport her and other members of Congress to Cleveland, Ohio, for the funeral of the late Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, which she called "Operation Tribute" and an "exception to standard policy." All of which exhibit the actions of someone who really does think she’s a princess, with a carbon footprint that should be, in no way, as diminutive as those of her constituents. FAIL!

3. Obama vacillates between optimism and doom and gloom. After nearly two months of continuously talking down the economy, as Wall Street reacted by dumping stocks day after day, Obama suddenly discovers optimism. First he tells Americans to buy! buy! buy! when the market is at its lowest, exhibiting one of the new duties of the Oval Office, Economist in Chief. A week later, after the market rallied for a few days, he said: "I don't think things are ever as good as they say, or ever as bad as they say. Things two years ago were not as good as we thought because there were a lot of underlying weaknesses in the economy. They're not as bad as we think they are now." Then he fires GM’s Wagoner, and brings up the very real possibility of bankruptcy for the automakers, and the market plummets 250 points. The change we need? Please. When he’s done figuring out how to do his job, we won’t have any change left to pay for his $4 trillion budget next year. FAIL!

4. Timothy Geithner: for existing. Forget the tax-cheat business; that’s last month’s news. The dubious Secretary of the Treasury Department has a big problem with his mouth. Asked about the People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan's call for a new international reserve currency, Geithner said, while he had not read Zhou's proposal, he understood it as a plan "designed to increase the use of the IMF's special drawing rights. And we're actually quite open to that." BAM! The dollar dropped worldwide. The next day he said the dollar would remain the world’s “dominant” currency. And this was AFTER Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., patiently drove nails into his eyes over his fundamental lack of understanding of “the Constitution,” during a House Financial Services Committee hearing:

REP. BACHMANN: Reclaiming my time, Mr. Secretary. What provision in the Constitution could you point to to give authority for the actions that have been taken by the treasury since march of ‘08?

SECRETARY GEITHNER: Oh, well, the congress, legislative, in the emergency economic stabilization act, a range of very important new authorities.

REP. BACHMANN: Where in the constitution? What in the constitution could you point to to give authority to the Treasury for the extraordinary actions that have been taken?

SECRETARY GEITHNER: Every action that the Treasury, Fed and FDIC has been using authority granted by this body by the congress.

REP. BACHMANN: And in the constitution, what could you point to?

SECRETARY GEITHNER: The laws of the land, of course.

HUH???? FAIL!

5. Sen. Christopher Dodd, the Obama Administration, and the AIG bonuses. First Dodd, D-Mass, said -- on camera -- that he didn’t know about the loophole in Porkulus that allowed AIG execs to keep their contracted bonuses, even though AIG had taken a $170 billion bailout from the federal government. Then he said he did know about it, again on camera, but only after he reviewed the facts to discover that the Treasury Department had asked him to rewrite an amendment that let AIG keep the bonuses, if the Obama Administration could take them back. Dodd fails for “misremembering” and then “remembering” to blame the Obama Administration. But, then again, with all of the billions of pork packed into that bill, no member of Congress reading it, and Obama breaking his campaign promise for not allowing ample public viewing of the legislation on the Internet, all of Washington FAILS! on this one.

6. Obama undoes then redoes the ban on funding for stem cell research. In a story that could only come out of Washington, Obama made a great public display of his ethical and scientific obligations for rescinding former President George W. Bush’s 2001 ban on federal funding for stem cell research. Then two days later, while signing the $410 billion omnibus bill (with 9,000 earmarks Obama promised during the campaign to never allow), the president knowingly (supposedly) approved the Dickey-Wicker amendment, an inclusion in the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services every fiscal year since 1996 that bans federal funding for stem cell research. Obama later said he’d leave it to Congress to come up with the law of the land on the matter. Political high drama with zero results at its best…and this is “change” how? FAIL!

7. The Obama administration starts using nondescript language for “terrorism” (in quotes, because it’s no longer “used”…meaning ALLOWED…in Washington). We no longer say “global war on terror,” because our…ahem…friends overseas don’t like it. We now say “overseas contingency plan.” [The chirping of crickets will now begin.] We also no longer say “terrorism.” The unofficial (as in, there’s no official directive on paper, sayeth Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) terminology is now “man-caused disaster.” [Were he here, Homer Simpson would think of saying “DOH!” but even he would be speechless over that one.] FAIL!

8. The beginning of the end for The Pony Express. Your stamp price goes up every two seconds (it seems like it, at least), but Postmaster General John Potter said the Post Office, which does not receive appropriations from Congress, lost $2.8 billion last year. It will lose another $6 billion next year. By contrast, Potter says cutting mail service on Saturdays would save $3.5 billion a year; changes in how the post office pre-pays for retiree health care would cut annual costs by another $2 billion. It can’t be all bad. If the Post Office did receive government funding, like AIG, GM, and Chrysler, the Obama administration would probably be taking back bonuses, firing Potter, and threatening a takeover in 30 - 60 days. FAIL!

9. Obama’s Special Olympics comment on Leno. He told Leno during The Tonight Show that he had bowled a 129, probably qualifying for the Special Olympics (this is paraphrasing, because Obama’s actual statement was more or less “I swear it was like Special Olympics or something” but that doesn’t sound too presidential…presumably because his teleprompter was back in the White House basement). The next day Michigan's Kolan McConiughey, the top bowler for the Special Olympics, fired back: "He bowled a 129. I bowl a 300. I could beat that score easily." Superlatives for McConiughey (and we’d like to see that match, btw). FAIL! for the President.

10. Obama obsesses over a question about whether he’s a socialist: During a flight from Ohio to Washington, New York Times reporter Peter Baker asked the president whether his domestic policies suggested that he was a socialist. “The answer would be no,” Obama said, laughing. But then, back in Washington, Obama called the reporter: “It was hard for me to believe that you were entirely serious about that socialist question,” Mr. Obama said from the Oval Office. [With many "ahhs" and "umms" removed from this printed version, of course.] With an economy in shambles, a major shift in policy and government control in nearly every aspect of public and private society underway, and two ongoing wars, since when does the president of the United States of America even have enough time to call a reporter back to debate the seriousness of a question? FAIL!