Barack Hussein Obama: Case Worker-in-Chief

During his defend-the-indefensible budget press conference, I was astonished to hear President Obama regret that he is not a caseworker who can pick up the phone and make things happen for Americans who are down on their luck. Tough luck for all of us. He is only the president of the United States and the most powerful man in the free world.

The Washington Post reported it in the Great Orator's own words:

I -- I -- I -- look, I definitely feel folks' pain. . . .

But sometimes I'm also just frustrated by the number of people out there who are struggling and, you know, you want to help every single one individually.

And I -- you know, you almost feel like you want to be a case worker and just start picking up the phone and advocating for each of these people who are working hard, trying to do right by their families . . . .

So, yeah, it -- it's frustrating. 

That's really some disconnect, and I'm not talking about the President's phone service.

Apparently, Obama still has not figured out that it does no good to advocate for someone who needs help unless there is someone around with the means to help that person.

When case workers advocate for the people they are trying to help, the buck stops at the drawer in which Case Worker-in-Chief Obama keeps his "stash." The money in that "stash" is put there by none other than private sector businesses and private sector workers trying to make a few bucks despite the mountain of obstacles shoveled into their way by Obama's policies. The bucks that they don't make will not be "spread around" via tax revenue into the federal "stash" that funds the goodies that case workers dispense and the salaries that keep case workers showing up for work.

Nevertheless, in recognition of Obama's pain-feeling abilities, I bring you the following snapshots:

Obama feeling your pain during linky love 

Obama feeling your pain on the court

Obama feeling your pain on a Honolulu beach

Obama and the Mrs. feeling your pain between martinis and a Broadway show

Yep, that's one empathic guy.

Instead of feeling America's pain, the president could make a few calls and do something about that pain. He could start by promoting a budget that seriously reduces the runaway debt destroying this country's economy, a debt of his own design.

That wouldn't take care of every single individual, but it sure would help.
__________

Revolution: A Look Through History

Harvard historian Niall Ferguson's slapdown of MSNBC'S Mika Brzezinski is making the rounds in the blogosphere today, with good reason:

In this interview, Ferguson pointed out that:

If you look at history . . . most revolutions lead not to happy-clappy democracies, but to periods of internal turmoil, often to periods of terror, and they also lead to external aggression because the simplest way to mobilize people in a relatively poor and not very well-educated country like Egypt is to point to the alleged enemy within and then, of course, the enemy abroad.

Hyphenated American, a Jewish-Russian-Chinese Cossack who got his history lesson by living through two revolutions, also is looking at Egypt through the lens of history:

[I]t requires sophistication to see that Hollywood Happy Ending is a rather rare thing in real life - particularly when you leave the civilized world and move to the rest of the planet. What are chances that the latest commotion in Egypt will end well? There were plenty of revolutions in the last few hundred years, and only very few of them had a happy ending. It is quite typical to hear of a revolution which starts as a popular uprising against the oppressive regime and ends up with a bunch of psychopaths taking over the country and building an even more oppressive regime - so oppressive indeed that the people wish they never revolted against the previous oppressive regime. Let's go through the memory lane, and take a look at a dozen of significant revolutions.

Hyphenated American argues that the American public have been conditioned by Hollywood and the entertainment industry to expect a happy ending. You will want to read his thoughts on the puzzlingly blithe willingness of many Americans to believe and even celebrate the appealing fiction that democracies can spring up naturally and bloodlessly in Islamic gardens where no democracy of any kind has ever bloomed.

That kind of unguarded optimism is very dangerous indeed for Americans who should know by now that, by virtue of their country's success, they are counted chief among "the enemies abroad" by every dictator on the planet looking to point the finger at somebody else.
__________

When Love Comes in and Takes You for a Spin . . .

Ooh la la la, c'est magnifique!

♡ Happy Valentines Day!
__________

What a Friend We Have in Jesus - The Purple Hulls

A little something you won't be seeing in Egypt any time soon: some downhome pickers getting together in their dining room to play an old hymn, bluegrassed up a little:

Freedom of religion. Use it--or lose it.
__________

On the Muslim Brotherhood: Quote of the Day

The lack of Muslim Brotherhood power in Egypt does not reflect that the Muslim Brotherhood is not a threat, but rather, that the threat has been taken seriously by the Egyptian government.

~William Jacobson

__________

Sarkozy Abandons Multiculturalism

Correction: at 3:52 Sarcozy says: "We are a "laïque [secular]" country, not a
catholique" [Catholic] country.

H/t: Gates of Vienna.
__________

After Mubarak: What Egyptians Will Vote For

Egyptian men celebrate success of revolt against Hosni Mubarak on 2/11/11

From a poll conducted last year by the Pew Research Center come estimated percentages of adult Egyptians favoring specific changes in Egypt's civil policies and law  (via Investors Business Daily). What the average Egyptian wants is not what the "feel-good" MSM would have you believe.

What Egyptians said they want:

• A much larger role in politics for Islam — 95%

• Death penalty for people who leave the Muslim faith — 84%

• Stoning of [female] adulterers — 82%

• Cutting off the hands of thieves — 77%

• Segregating women from men in the workplace— 54%

The following sympathies also will be influencing Egyptian voters:

• 82% of Egyptians dislike the U.S. — the highest unfavorable rating among the 18 Muslim nations Pew surveyed.

• 54% believe suicide bombings that kill civilians can be justified.

• Nearly half support the terrorist group Hamas.

• 30% have a favorable opinion of Hezbollah.

• 20% maintain positive views of al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden.

According to the IPD:

This empirical evidence refutes the sympathetic narrative broadcast as a continuous loop in the media over the past fortnight. Even after getting beat up by anti-American mobs, CNN's Anderson Cooper portrayed rioters as largely secular yuppies yearning for modernity and the triumph of human rights over martial law.

He and other media elite have it exactly backwards: Egyptians are revolting against Western-style democracy. The Pew poll reveals they do not, in fact, value our principles of individual freedoms, human rights and separation of religion and state.

It is plain they do not want what we want. They want an Islamic theocracy.

__________

Donald Trump at CPAC (Video)

I am glad this man has entered the debate. He is saying things that need saying:

__________

Al Gore Watch: Oklahoma Colder than South Pole

Four men treking to the South Pole -- or they could just go to Okalahoma.

This tidbit from AccuWeather.com:

At 7 a.m. CST this morning, it was colder in northeastern Oklahoma than at the South Pole.


In Bartlesville, Okla., a temperature of 28° below zero was recorded at 7:19 a.m. . . . Elsewhere in the Bartlesville area, a temperature of 29° below zero was reported around 7 a.m.


[snip]


As AccuWeather.com Meteorologist Eric Wanenchak pointed out, the temperature at the South Pole was 23° below zero at 7 a.m. CST this morning. Therefore, parts of Oklahoma and Kansas were just as cold as, if not colder than, the South Pole.

Carbon credits, anyone?

Added 2/16/11:

I couldn't figure out how to embed graphics into the comment section, so I am posting this chart of global temperatures for the last 5000 years in answer to commenter John, who takes me for an "idiot" because I am not alarmed by claims of doom by proponents of anthropogenic global warming:





And then there's this, just because I like it, from Minnesotans for Global Warming:

__________

Planned Parenthood & Child Sex Trafficking - Now from the Big Apple

The MSM's silence about the aiding an abetting of sexual abuse of children by Planned Parenthood is getting deafening. It's happening in New York City too.

Is there a Planned Parenthood clinic anywhere in this country where this is not happening? Every one of these Planned Parenthood "counselors" is reading from the same script. It is obvious that they attended similar training sessions.

Is there no one in government who cares about this abomination other than to provide foreign-language translation services for adolescent sex slaves? Those translators must get an earful. I wonder if their "confidential" conversations with children held in bondage are recorded for "quality check purposes"?

Hat tip: Another Black Conservative.
__________

Prosecution's Closing Argument at Beheading Trial

Aasiya and Muzzamil at Bridges TV

"Mo" Hassan claimed that he beheaded his wife because she had humiliated him. Then he decided that people were all upset with him because they are Islamophobes. Finally, he settled on a defense of being an abused husband, though his children testified in court that he frequently beat his victim, Aasiya, their stepmother.

It took Aasiya years to bring herself to file for divorce because she knew that her life, and the lives of their children, were at risk. When she finally did, it took Muzzamil Hussan less than a week to purchase two hunting knives and less than 40 seconds to stab her almost 60 times and behead her, while their children waited outside in a cold van on a freezing February night two years ago. You can read all about it in the Buffalo Evening News.

Part of Muzzamil's defense (he insisted on acting as his own defense attorney after going through a series of lawyers) was that he was courteous to the staff who sold him the knives and who gave him a cardboard box, at his request, so he could test their sharpness. Courteous = nice guy, in Muzzamil's universe.

The beheading was bad for Hussan's business, Bridges TV, a cable station that he had founded with Aasiya to eliminate stereotypes of Muslims and to show the world what Islam is really like. [Added: As Aasiaya said about her role in founding the station, "I did not want my kids growing up to watch Muslims being portrayed as terrorists." (h/t Pundette)]

After the crime, Bridges TV suspended its news programming for several months. At Bridges TV, some news is more equal than other news.

In his self-defense claim, Mo pleaded that he "didn't start it."

Here is a portion of the prosecution's summation yesterday at the close of Mo Hussan's trial, in answer to that self-defense claim:

It took the jury one hour to find Muzzamil Hussan guilty of second degree murder.

Hat tip: Atlas Shrugs.
__________

Related: It's a Tough Life: "Mo" Hassan Weeps Again

Obama's Superbowl Party Menu - Heh

You guessed it: Brewski and burgers (cheeseburgers, that is), bratwurst, kielbasa, deep-dish pizza and Buffalo wings with sides of German potato salad, twice-baked potatoes and assorted chips and dips.

You really weren't expecting low fat, low salt, and high fiber, were you?

Nah. That's just for us peasants.

__________

A Tamil Hymn for Candlemas

I am very fond of Indian music, so I was happy to find this lovely Tamil-language devotional song (bhajan) meditating on the Presentation of the Infant Jesus in the Temple of Jerusalem forty days after His birth. In the Temple, a holy man named Simeon recognized the Infant as the Redeemer, blessed the Child, and prophesied that a sword would pierce His mother's soul "so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed." In some traditions, candles are blessed on this day, hence the name, Candlemas.

Tamil is spoken in the south of India and in Sri Lanka.

__________

Ronald Reagan Tells Soviet Jokes

Ronald Reagan, a president who understood communism:

__________

The Logo of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood

Now I ask you: Is this the logo of a peaceful organization?

H/t: Daniel Pipes
__________

Victory for Hunger: EPA Diverts More Corn to Ethanol

A corn storehouse in Tanzania

Corn is one of the world's most important staple crops. In Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, where corn is most important, about 1 billion people get most of their energy and nutrients from corn. 

Americans are also highly dependent on corn, which is eaten not only as sweet corn, corn flakes, and corn chips, but also in some form in many processed foods, including baked goods and canned goods. Corn also is a major feed for dairy and beef cattle, pigs, and chickens.

When less corn is available and corn prices rise,  people who subsist primarily on corn tragically suffer serious want, and American consumers, though less dependent on corn, start tightening their belts too.

It's obvious that diverting one-third of America's corn crop to providing energy for motor vehicles is a terrible, terrible idea, but that's what we've been doing. The gasoline you put into your vehicle's tank likely contains about 10% ethanol, a kind of grain alcohol that is a very inefficient fuel compared to gasoline. 

Worse, last fall the Obama's EPA raised the 10% ethanol allowable in most gasoline blends to 15% for cars manufactured after 2007, which will put even more stress on the world's food supply. It takes about 26 pounds of corn to make 1 gallon of ethanol. That's a lot of corn flakes.

Are you thinking that we will be getting our ethanol from grass sources or sugar cane? Sorry. Making ethanol from switchgrass is possible, but complicated. And Brazilian ethanol made from sugar cane is made prohibitively expensive here by a 54 cent-per-gallon tariff protecting American corn growers and ethanol distilleries. The reality is that about 98% of all American ethanol is made from corn.

That translates into 14% of all the corn grown in the world being poured into America's gas tanks. 

From Steve McCann at American Thinker:

Thus, the future price of corn per bushel in January 2011 is $6.51, as compared to $3.84 in January 2010 -- an increase of nearly 70%.

Imagine what an increase like that is doing to a family spending more than half their income on food in Latin America or sub-Saharan Africa, and imagine how it will continue to be reflected in the prices you pay for milk, cheese, eggs, beef, chicken, pork, cold cuts, breakfast cereal, baked goods, canned vegetables, catsup and salad dressing, snack foods, soda, etc., etc., etc. It isn't pretty.

It also isn't necessary. Ethanol is not an efficient fuel, and it isn't good for your motor vehicle. From USA Today:

"The new ethanol blends, known as E-15, come with serious risks for our engines, wildlife, water, and the air we all breathe," warns Nathanael Greene at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental activist group.

"A broad coalition of environmentalists, public health advocates, livestock ranchers, and automakers have long opposed EPA's move," he says. "Burning ethanol can cause toxic air pollutants to be emitted from vehicle tailpipes, especially at higher blend levels like E-15. The chemistry is fairly straightforward: ethanol burns hotter than gasoline, causing catalytic converters to break down faster."

All kinds of other motors that run on gasoline are at even greater risk from E-15: motorcycles, boats, law mowers, weed eaters. If it has a motor and runs on gasoline, expect the unexpected when it comes to the new higher-ethanol blend. And expect your warranty to no longer apply.

If American food consumers, the world's poor, and the environment will not benefit, who will be the winners? The answer: 54 ethanol manufacturers. These ethanol distillers already benefit from a 45 cent-per-gallon tax credit for blending ethanol into gasoline.

From The Wall Street Journal:

The cause of boosting ethanol use in cars has been strongly championed by Growth Energy, an ethanol trade group led by Wesley Clark, the retired Army general and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate.

Gen. Clark's group petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency last year to allow ethanol levels in gasoline blends to be as high as 15%, up from the current 10%.

[snip]

The ethanol industry has lobbied to boost the blend limit because holding the current 10 percent standard would limit the size of the U.S. ethanol industry to somewhere between 13 billion gallons and 13.5 billion gallons, depending on gasoline demand. But the industry has construction projects underway that would boost its annual capacity beyond 13.5 billion gallons in a matter of months.

The country's largest producer of ethanol and of corn is Iowa, home of the very important Iowa caucus, the first chance American voters have to show support for a presidential candidate. Candidates who do well in the Iowa caucus get a real boost, a boost that the EPA, next time around, wants to harvested by Barack Hussein Obama.

__________

100% of Senate Dems Vote Against Repeal of Unconstitutional ObamaCare

They know this law is unconstitutional and that 28 of the 57 states hate it. So what is this all about, Dems?

From Netright Daily:

UPDATE: The Senate has voted to NOT repeal ObamaCare by a vote of 51-47. No Democrats supported repeal, including Ben Nelson (D-NE).

On the other hand, the idea that the Obamatons can squeeze the money to pay for ObamaCare out of small businesses just bit the dust.

UPDATE: The vote to repeal the part of ObamaCare requiring massive 1099 filings has passed 81-17.

__________

Lookie What's Coming Over the Southern Border Now . . .

You've seen Mexican flags flying on the flagpoles of American school and carried by the hundreds through American streets while American children are denied the right to display the Stars and Stripes; American men, women, and children murdered by criminal illegal aliens who were given sanctuary by nutcase U.S. government officials; cross-border tunnels to facilitate illegal drug trade; American neighborhoods and entire communities destroyed by the influx of illegal aliens; pristine desert turned into trash heaps; American hospitals and emergency rooms by the hundreds driven into bankrupty by the cost of giving "free" medical treatment to people who entered this country illegally; known and unknown Islamic terrorists tramping into the U.S. through the porous southwest border. The list goes on and on.

But have you seen this? Read that poster carefully.

From Woodsterman. Pass it on.
__________

Poor Li'l Punxsutawney Phil . . .

__________

Massive Storm Global Warming Question of the Day

Map courtesy AccuWeather.com

Who's going to clear off all the solar panels?


~ Tom Nelson

__________