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May 16th, 2009 9:24 am

The Meaning of Obama, Part II, with a note from J. L. Austin and an epitaph for cognitive dissonance

Last month, President Obama assured the world that “words must mean something.”

Yes, but what?

The President has just informed us, in his most earnest tones, that current U.S. deficit spending is “unsustainable.” More amazing news followed: government borrowing will mean higher interest rates for U.S. consumers as foreign countries shy away from investing in the United States. He even had a line about “mortgaging our children’s future with more and more debt.”

Now, I believe there is a lot to be said for all of these things. The debt carried by the United States is indeed “unsustainable.” Interest rates are almost certain to rise; the gusty noise you hear offstage is, I’m told on reliable authority, that great asset acid, inflation, just waiting to make a comeback. And when I am not worrying about how I am going to pay for our children’s college education I worry about what sort of country we are preparing to bequeath them: what will their tax burden be in 2025, say?

As I say, these are all good points. The question is, does Barack Obama have the right to raise them? Democrats and their shills in the legacy (formerly the mainstream) media wailed and wailed about the deficits run up by the Bush administration. They had my sympathy, frankly. Much as I admire President Bush — and I do admire him — he spent money like a drunken Democrat.

Or so I thought. It turns out that Bush was a rank amateur when it came to profligacy. His $400 billion deficit, which seemed like a lot of money at the time, is not even a weekend’s “stimulus” bill for Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid & Co. A week or so ago, the White House told us that the budget deficit for the current fiscal year would be $1.75 trillion dollars ($1,750,000,000,000). Somebody forgot to include the party favors, though, because a few days later that estimate was raised to $1.84 trillion ($1,840,000,000,000), a difference of some $90 billion, or more than 4 times the $17 billion in “savings” that Obama announced with such fanfare recently. After the laughter subsided — after all, the President’s Potemkin cuts amount to 1/2 of 1 percent of his budget — Obama shot back: “In Washington, I guess [$17 billion is] considered trivial. Outside of Washington, that’s still considered a lot of money.”

Right on both counts, Prez! In Washington, $17 billion is considered trivial. To the rest of us, however, who will eventually be called upon to pony up for the dough, it is, as you say, a lot of money. That’s exactly the problem: Washington spends it, we pay for it.

The English essayist William Hazlitt once observed that “those who lack delicacy hold us in their power.” Most of us, encountering someone who lectures us about “unsustainable” levels of debt, “mortgaging our children’s future,” etc., expect that if we scratch the chap we find a fiscal conservative.

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68 Comments

1. David Thomson:

“…as foreign countries shy away from investing in the United States.”

I am stunned that few Americans realize what this new development will mean for our economy. The Obama administration has unwittingly told investors that it will play them for suckers. Those Chrysler investors will not be the last ones to get the knife in the back. China and the other foreign governments no longer trust the United States! We are about to pay an awful price. The damage done to our reputation may take generations to undo. The lack of trust admittedly is not the only problem. We are also perceived to be out of control spendthrifts. Far too many Americans behave like drunken sailors out on the town on Saturday night.

May 16, 2009 - 11:04 am 2. John Frary:

Yup. $17,000,000,000 IS considered a lot of money outside of Washington.

Nope. One half of one percent is NOT considered a substantial cut outside of Washington.

May 16, 2009 - 2:39 pm 3. Polemicscat:

I don’t wish to be an alarmist, but when the nation has a President whose language cannot be a part of rational dialogue, more than the economy is at risk.

May 16, 2009 - 5:17 pm 4. Pajamas Media » The Meaning of Obama, Part II: When Words Don’t Have Meaning:

[...] Read the entire piece here. [...]

May 17, 2009 - 12:24 am 5. Alexander Almasov:

Seems that Homer has nodded once more: from what I remember of elementary arithmetic, an increase of 2.6 times x is NOT an increase of 260%, but of 160% (an increase from x to 2x is an increase of “only” 100%). Even as Obama and Axlerod leach meaning from words, we should not risk imitating them on numbers too.

May 17, 2009 - 2:11 am 6. Formwiz:

When 17 billion is one half of one percent of the federal budget, talking about it being a lot of money and leaving it at that makes you a liar and a hypocrite. Obambi has made a career of this. He invoked the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence when criticized that his vapid, empty Hopenchange rhetoric was “just words”. Only the people unwilling to see the medicine show con then are disappointed now.

May 17, 2009 - 3:20 am 7. Ed Wallis:

Yes, well….

I will not hold my breath for one…JUST ONE… reporter to ask the President,

“Well, if such spending and debts are ‘unsustainable’ as you say, then why the hell are YOU doing it?!”

May 17, 2009 - 3:49 am 8. Jerry:

Current choice for POTUS: President Obama; Future choice for POTUS: Sheila Bair, current head of the FDIC.

Her views are fact-based, her stage-presence is superior to that of President Obama, her intellectual achievements and personal history are available to public view, she has run for office as a Republican in the past, her values are mainstream, and she has a grasp of economic issues that is so advanced that she leaves Mr. Obama in the HEPA-filter dust. She can win, becoming America’s first female American president.

Can’t we get a reasonable person for the very important position of POTUS?! Can someone out there get someone of importance to consider Ms. Bair?

May 17, 2009 - 4:17 am 9. RE:

In matching his words to his deeds and even his words on one day to his words on another, it’s clear that Obama is a disingenuous manipulator counting on Americans having an extremely short attention span.

Obama’s call for fiscal responsibility after quadrupling the federal deficit is astonishing. Is he even aware of the words he reads off the teleprompter? He does not even seem to believe his own words when he recites to us that words have meaning.

And the people that support and defend Obama in his incoherence – have they any self-respect?

May 17, 2009 - 4:32 am 10. D-wah:

Good stuff, Roger. Funny that an article entitled “The Meaning of Obama” still can’t tell us what he means, only what he doesn’t mean. Oblame-us leaves us to figure out who he is by who he isn’t, as he plays dodge ball with us and eliminates the options through phony assertions and that perfect term, cognitive dissonance.

Sorry to say for those who can’t see it, your ending…

“….you cannot live a contradiction. Or can you? The spectacle of Barack Hussein Obama might suggest otherwise. Watching his pas de deux with himself is to understand that cognitive dissonance can be a vocation as well as a warning. I can’t help worrying, though, that making it your vocation is only the first act of a drama that ends very badly indeed.”

..is the only conclusion a rational person can make. Yet this silver-fork-tongued lying hypocrite (kind of summarizing what you’re getting at here) who can only be interpreted at the least as disingenuous (but I’d ramp it up to sinister), still gets a pass. What’s with the suicide wish? Is 60 whatever the heck percent of this country out of their minds?

How anyone can’t see what is going on in this country astounds me. We’re being hijacked, nothing less. If there was a well meaning bone in that man’s body we would have heard ONE sincere word, comment or thought by this time. But nothing. Always scripted, always cold, always calculated–and as you’ve so poignantly explained, always the polar opposite of what he does.

All while the country, the one he purports to be leading, is TANKING in a few short months! Might we have a little problem here, folks?! Whoever gets a buzz from this guy’s hollow, hypocritical alphabet soup is bewitched by a hologram and their own wishful thinking.

God help America wake up before this “first act of the drama ends very badly indeed!” for all of us.

May 17, 2009 - 4:40 am 11. Delia:

3. Polemicscat:

“I don’t wish to be an alarmist, but when the nation has a President whose language cannot be a part of rational dialogue, more than the economy is at risk.”
~
I think many of us are way past alarm and in full-blown panic mode.

9. RE:

“In matching his words to his deeds and even his words on one day to his words on another, it’s clear that
Obama is a disingenuous manipulator counting on Americans having an extremely short attention span.”
~
Yes indeedy do. It is actually embarrassing to watch the snollygoster flip-flop on the daily and it really makes one wonder who writes the crap his teleprompter spews out for him to read. I honestly wonder if he even glosses over his pre-written speeches before he reads them out loud to the world. Is he completely devoid of thought without that damned teleprompter? ‘Brilliant’ my lily-white arse!

May 17, 2009 - 4:52 am 12. eon:

Considering that a substantial number of people (such as a lot of those evil Rethuglicans) were telling The Self-Exalted One exactly this while he and his facilitators (Reid and Pelosi) were doing it, his “warnings” ring a bit hollow at this point.

Although I suspect they are mainly a warning that, since he doesn’t believe the debt is “sustainable”, he’s going to try to reduce it by the time-dishonored “progressive” method of taxing everyone to death. While demanding that we “produce more, and consume less, without harming Holy Mother Gaia”, all at once.

The trouble with The One isn’t cognitive dissonance. It’s that he honestly thinks he is The Smartest Man Who Ever Lived, and thus can hold three or more mutually-contradictory positions simultaneously, insist that all of them are valid, and strenuously deny that they are contradictory.

As British author Eric Arthur Blair (better known as George Orwell) once said, there are some ideas that are so stupid that only a very intelligent person could believe in them.

“Obamanomics” falls into this category.

clear ether

eon

May 17, 2009 - 5:07 am 13. john from cinncinatti:

the Chinese already told him to stop with the doom and gloom because it was their money he was doom and glooming. Will the world stand by and watch as the Potus goes off the deep end? will they give us a stimulus package or let us go into bankruptcy? will they ask for our CEO to step down before they give us more bailout cash? or do they want to nationalize our country?

May 17, 2009 - 5:51 am 14. Terry Gain:

In his next homily the shameless and clueless Obama discusses The Sanctity of Life to be followed by Peace Through Strength and then The Liberation of Iraq: Permanently Removing The Terrorist Threat Posed By A Nuclear Weapons-Seeking, Mass Murdering, Genocidal Stalinist.

May 17, 2009 - 5:56 am 15. MiamaMan:

French diplomat Monsieur DeMaistre, made famous that cynical phrase: “Each country has the government it deserve.”

Obama, nay, expert David Axelrod hidden behind him, both are geniuses at the politics of deception, and the use of charged words for moving masses, and energizing mass movements and ACORN militants. Alinsky’s disciples.

They outmaneuver, encircled, Blitzkrieged old McCain in a way that should be classically commented in history books for generations to come. They did the same with many naive Americans that should have never voted for him and are now experiencing a hangover.

The black community, well that I can understand. He sold them he was African American when he isn’t. Still I understand.

The Hispanics, specially the Mexican, OK, I can take that too. They expect government help, want to bring in the rest of the family, are for sanctuary cities, and against workplace ICE raids.

The Jews 80% for Obama. Whatever you sow, you reap. These liberal Jews are more anti-Semite and anti-Israel that most others.

The rest that pushed him over the line were enmeshed in the play of words and are those that have to eat now the words of DeMaistre. It is well know that these 2 empty words are always used to energize mass movements into deceit: HOPE and CHANGE.

May 17, 2009 - 6:17 am 16. MiamaMan:

French diplomat Monsieur DeMaistre, made famous that cynical phrase: “Each country has the government it deserves.”

The black community, well that I can understand. He sold them he was African American when he isn’t. Still I understand.

The Hispanics, specially the Mexican, OK, I can take that too. They expect government help, want to bring in the rest of the family, are for sanctuary cities, and against workplace ICE raids.

The Jews 80% for Obama. Whatever you sow, you reap. These liberal Jews are more anti-Semite and anti-Israel that most others.

The rest that pushed him over the line were enmeshed in the play of words and are those that have to eat now the words of DeMaistre. It is well known that these 2 empty words are always used to energize mass movements into deceit: HOPE and CHANGE.

May 17, 2009 - 6:19 am 17. Fred Beloit:

Electing a Democratic Party majority is economically unsustainable for our country. Why are they borrowing and spending so wildly? They must be stopped. Thank you, my fellow Americans.

Sincerely,
Barack Obama

May 17, 2009 - 6:26 am 18. Tcobb:

“When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said in a rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.”
“The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean different things.”
“The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master – that’s all.”
—”Through the Looking Glass”

May 17, 2009 - 6:53 am 19. LeighB:

“The spectacle of Barack Hussein Obama might suggest otherwise. Watching his pas de deux with himself is to understand that cognitive dissonance can be a vocation as well as a warning.”

Word. May we find the votes in 2012 to help him take his “dancing” elsewhere.

May 17, 2009 - 6:56 am 20. jimpres:

Have any of you talked to your friends who voted for him? He is taking us down the trail to “bust”. There is no way to spend you way out of debt. Can not be done. Sooner or later you have to stop the spending. And after the abortions (killing potential taxpayers) and letting the elderly go peacefully he will have less revenue from their taxes. They was another country that went down this path to socialism and it did not turn out well.

May 17, 2009 - 7:01 am 21. Roger Godby:

Congress hasn’t been fiscally responsible since, I’m guessing, Calvin Coolidge. However, not to excuse Comrade 0bama, the US national debt-to-GDP will become 60% or so; in Germany, it is a bit higher; in Italy, it is over 100%; in Japan, it is 180%.

I am not an economist and _do not_ wish to excuse 0bamarama spending, but if other developed countries (with shrinking (or soon-to-be) populations) can manage great debt without hyperinflation, perhaps the US can pull it off. Perhaps.

Or maybe the tower of cards will finally encounter that long-missing gust of wind.

May 17, 2009 - 7:03 am 22. Delia:

15. MiamaMan:

“The black community, well that I can understand. He sold them he was African American when he isn’t. Still I understand.”

The majority of black people usually vote Democrat anyway so it wasn’t that much of a leap for them to vote for a Black Dem even though they did show up in greater numbers than usual thanks to ACORN.

Yes, the ILLIGAL Hispanics are sucking our country dry and 0bama is using them for guaranteed Dem votes. Amnesty HELL.

Newsworthy linkage:

The 81% Tax Increase

The Alinsky Administration

Poll: Mor Americans ‘Pro-Life’

May 17, 2009 - 7:17 am 23. Fragmentarian:

As me old man used to say when caught in a little cognitive dissonance, “Do what I say, not what I do!”

May 17, 2009 - 7:23 am 24. Khiri:

Delia:

‘Brilliant’ my lily-white arse!</i?

Be careful, or you’ll be called a ‘racist’! ;Þ

May 17, 2009 - 7:38 am 25. jimpres:

I thought that if your GDP debt was over 40% you could not get into the EU? But maybe if you are in the EU you can overspend.

May 17, 2009 - 7:47 am 26. Self-hating Boomer:

Teh One just handed the GOP the juiciest political gift that they could ever imagine. If they can’t make lemonade out of this lemon, they deserve to go the way of the Whigs.

I’m not sure if they will.

May 17, 2009 - 8:14 am 27. macko:

I believe it was in an article that I read here not so far back that basically said:

When people critisize that he cannot save the economy and country through all this spending the question is “what makes you think he intends to?”

After all everyone but a few in his camp said that the debt would be unsustainable. his reply “oops my bad”. Hiring tax cheats to work in his administration “I’ll take full responsibility”.

When someone, anyone makes a profanity laced statement in an improper setting and then requests you accept their apology for using that language did not use that language accidently.

May 17, 2009 - 8:47 am 28. D-wah:

Good links, Delia–tx! Don’t know how I missed that good Alinsky article. Amazing, his “teaching” picture on his campaign website was him teaching at an Alinsky school! Wouldn’t have taken the media a second to find that out if it were anyone else. Damn them.

May 17, 2009 - 8:57 am 29. AThinkingPerson:

Surely when the inevitable recession arrives, even the illiterate, uneducated majority of the liberal left will finally realize what we’re facing. When the ACLU is furious with him and the liberal NYTimes is wondering why TeleBama cannot take charge and quit looking backward to the Bush administration as their scapegoat, things are surely looking up.

When the sheeple awaken and join the rest of the thinking population, maybe this out-of-control President can be reigned in.

May 17, 2009 - 8:59 am 30. Delia:

24. Khiri:

“Be careful, or you’ll be called a ‘racist’! ;Þ”
-
LOL! Are you new here? I’ve been called that numerous times here to the point of boredom. Welcome!
~

28. D-wah,

You’re welcome! Yeah, that Alinsky link is a keeper…the last line summed it all up:

“It’s not about the policies or the politics, and it’s certainly not about the principles. It’s about power, and it has been for a long time.”

Unfortunately, the above quote could cover a majority of politicians from both sides of the isle.

May 17, 2009 - 9:19 am 31. Evil Otto:

When the sheeple awaken and join the rest of the thinking population, maybe this out-of-control President can be reigned in.

That’s not going to happen. Even when Recession Part II arrives (along with massive inflation), the majority of Obama’s drone-like followers will have no idea why. They’ll just continue to vote for the same socialist clowns.

The problem is that it wasn’t the ACLU and the NY Times that got him elected, so them turning against Obama won’t hurt him very much. It was millions upon millions of shallow, unthinking sheep voting for him because he promised them goodies from the government (lower taxes paid for by the rich, free health care, jobs) He won’t fall until it becomes obvious to the sheep that they’re not going to get their goodies, and when he fails to deliver they’ll simply pick someone else who promises them more. The sheep don’t vote on rationality, they vote their feelings.

May 17, 2009 - 9:24 am 32. macko:

It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes.
A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.
Thomas Jefferson

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those
who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
Thomas Jefferson

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the
government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson

May 17, 2009 - 9:28 am 33. BellaMia:

Obama is an alcoholic drunk on spending. Some in the nation are co-dependents and enablers. The rest of us must force and intervention.

May 17, 2009 - 9:50 am 34. aprilnovember811:

When I watch the people in the audiences that attend these staged town halls I’m just astounded at the ignorance in this country. They sit there with these stupid, looks on their faces taking in every lying word this puppet spews at them.

May 17, 2009 - 9:56 am 35. westerncanadian:

Mr Obama is Mr Oflim-flamma. The US public apparently want to be flim-flammed and has gone insane. Living on a street full of lunatics is bad enough but the stuff that the flim-flam covers up is worse.

Take the proposed cap-and-trade-swindle. Here “border tax adjustments” would impose charges on goods from countries that do not match U,S efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. These will act as trade protectionism in the name of environmental protection. Even if a country did match, or exceed, US measures it will still be up to politicians in Washington to deem if the protections were adequate. Guess what the answer will be.

Worse, for the USA, the Democrats plan to use global warming as the excuse for a transfer of wealth from one part of the country to another. It’s strange how the companies that would benefit from free emission credits are clustered in the Northeast and on the West Coast – Democrat voting states.
Those who would have to buy credits tend to be located in Republican voting states.

Read this opinion piece in the National Post at

http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/05/17/national-post-editorial-board-the-cap-and-trade-con-game.aspx

May 17, 2009 - 10:15 am 36. D-wah:

Macko—LOVE those! We know that giant sucking sound is from Mexico, but is anyone wondering what that groaning, creaking, shuffling sound is? It’s our founders turning in their graves.

Delia–yeah, that power thing–not good for most people’s hearts, or eyesight.(think–creepy voice–”my precious…”)

Oh for truly self-sacrificial statesmen like our founders. Perhaps the white hot fires of these escalating calamities will reveal, or forge, some new ones. Braveheart comes to mind. Bottom line–we can only be pushed so far.

May 17, 2009 - 10:16 am 37. davidt:

The foxes took control of the henhouse many years ago. What’s most concerning is how blatant they have all become. Professional politicians no longer have any fear of any negative consequences of their actions. They all feel perfectly safe doing whatever they please. Even if driven from office they are set for life. This situation will not end well.

May 17, 2009 - 10:19 am 38. Sherab Zangpo:

Again, Folks, what the pundits take as a “mistake” (or incompetency or whatever else in the same direction) is a TYPICAL sign of…SUBVERSION.
Those who have the stomach to do it: please go and read speeches by hitler or by mussolini: a comparison between what an enemy of Freedom says and what the reality was when he spoke gives always the same result: the subversives say X while the reality is not-X.

All this is another symptom that tells us to be aware and to be on the lookout for any violation of the Constitution.
We must be especially wary of special laws designed to the “greater good” of us all…those are normally the ways to try a shortcut out of…Freedom !

And as I repeat every day: I could be wrong, but only the future will tell, and it is better to let the powers that be know that they are being watched.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

May 17, 2009 - 10:42 am 39. Moogie:

#10 D-wah: “Always scripted, always cold, always calculated–and as you’ve so poignantly explained, always the polar opposite of what he does.”

Of all the responses I’ve seen here in PJ, I think this one, with the word “cold” is one of the best descriptions yet.

Obama is not a mystery. The “meaning” of the man is very clear: remove the Constitution and institute statism.

I’ve said it until I’ve gotten to the point where even I am tired of hearing me say it: his words don’t mean anything. They mean absolutely nothing. Why try to interpret them? There’s no point. It’s like trying to interpret nothingness – a void.

It is only in his actions that we see the real man behind the curtain. I read something that said his sudden reversal in the “torture” pictures finally shows us some of his humanity. No, it doesn’t. It shows us his CYA. He realized the negative impact the release of those pictures would have – on HIM – and reversed his decision.

Can anyone actually believe he has integrity? Or humanity? Of course he doesn’t.

It’s time to stop harping on what he says. Delia’s link, “The Alinsky Administration” contains an article that details Obama’s approach to everything he does, and everything he says and doesn’t say. The words are meaningless, but the action always points to the same thing: more power for Obama.

May 17, 2009 - 10:51 am 40. D-wah:

Moogs–glad I nailed it for you–I felt almost creeped out myself when it came out, it’s so stark wicked true. As you know, I share your sentiments. I see him as a disciple, an agent, an instrument, a facilitator for the Cause–and he’s petrified in sickening stinking pride about being it. That anyone takes his words seriously is absolute folly. I can hardly stand the news breaks on the radio “President Obama said this about that today..” over and over and on and on. It doesn’t matter that he said the opposite yesterday. It has no consequence except tone swaying over the swooning brain-dead and utter domination of the airwaves. i.e.–he’s ALREADY dominating us!

I mean, since when have we EVER heard SO MUCH “Pres. says this” and “Pres did that..”? Just the volume of crap about him is unconscionable! Have you SEEN the news stands? It’s WORSHIP by VOLUME of attention! When someone is set up like that you’re being told “Why, he’s bigger than life! He must really be something! In fact, he’s the most important thing that ever happened! And he must be doing the right thing..and if not yet completely, or at least he soon WILL! Let him rule! I’m certainly not gonna buck this apparently wonderful wave of hope and change, how could anyone dare question him and not want that?!” It’s madness!

…but I’m getting tired of hearing myself as well–the others will soon find out. Have a good week, and keep the faith. Truth can never be extinguished!

May 17, 2009 - 11:52 am 41. josil:

Obama makes a conservative Republican almost long for another Clinton.

May 17, 2009 - 11:55 am 42. D-wah:

josil–scary but true. At least the Clintons were humanoid. Obama’s an undistractable android. Pre-programmed, wound up, and ready to wreak his havoc.

May 17, 2009 - 12:26 pm 43. Khiri:

Delia:

Are you new here?

No, I’ve posted before and actually responded to one of your posts a few weeks back. Although I don’t always agree with you, when I do agree, I agree wholeheartedly and with admiration. I like your style!!

May 17, 2009 - 12:45 pm 44. Ed Wallis:

I cain’t hep hahself sumtimes (it’s Sunday…), buuuuuuuut…

…since the article is about when words lose their meaning,
perhaps pictures will compensate:

http://izismile.com/2009/01/23/obamas_official_portrait_photo_montage_75_pics.html

May 17, 2009 - 1:28 pm 45. tanstaafl:

As conservatives size up their new foe, they ought to remember: It’s not about liberalism. It’s about power. Obama will jettison anything that costs him power, and do anything that enhances it —…It’s not about the policies or the politics, and it’s certainly not about the principles. It’s about power, and it has been for a long time.

From Geraghty’s Alinsky article. It’s certainly one way to try and handle the flip flops and contradictions and the massive cognitive dissonance The One™ engenders in those trying to make sense of him.

Thanks for the link, Delia and expanded comments, Moogie & D-wah.

(for a long time, I’ve known that “power” is the single animating principle of one Nancy Pelosi (rocket science, eh ?) She has, recently, become entrapped by her longstanding obsession of “getting” the Bush administration)

May 17, 2009 - 1:33 pm 46. tanstaafl:

The Wanda Sykes Obama Roast (if she wasn’t a sycophantic toady.)

May 17, 2009 - 1:52 pm 47. The Famous Mo:

So apparently ObeyMe’s plan is for everyone in America to get a book deal, become a Senator, and appropriate a couple of million dollars to our spouses’ employers. BRILLIANT!

May 17, 2009 - 1:59 pm 48. jiggle the handle:

Giving Democrats the power of the purse is like giving teen-aged boys the car keys and liquor. You not sure of the exact ending except that it will be bad.

May 17, 2009 - 2:01 pm 49. Delia:

Moogster & D-wah…great input!
~
43. Khiri,

Sorry! I sometimes do drive-by posts and then get busy with other things and don’t come back to a thread/topic. I’m my own person and not everything I say is mainstream and I think if people agreed with me on everything, well, that would be a tidge creepy. lol
~

45. tanstaafl,

Yep. The hunger for power supercedes anything else in the ‘end game’ of politics. -Kind of frightening to think we put our lives in the hands of people who are only after their own best interests rather than serving us as they SHOULD.

P.S. My typos are glaring out at me now, that’s what I get for posting half-asleep this morning. Pfft!

May 17, 2009 - 3:19 pm 50. Khiri:

Delia:

Are you new here?

Doh! I get it now. A little slow today.

Good thing I’m not voting today!

May 17, 2009 - 3:26 pm 51. Conservative Nation:

[...] Kimball: The Meaning of Obama, Part II, with a note from J. L. Austin and an epitaph for cognitive dissonance It turns out that Bush was a rank amateur when it came to profligacy. His $400 billion deficit, [...]

May 17, 2009 - 4:07 pm 52. Sebastian Shaw:

President Obama’s words mean nothing; it’s his actions are where to look. I also don’t believe the man has any charisma either. He’s boring & bored even when reading a teleprompter.

May 17, 2009 - 6:07 pm 53. D-wah:

Delia; “I think if people agreed with me on everything, well, that would be a tidge creepy. lol”. Ha!–oh if they only would! Rock on, sweetheart…!

May 17, 2009 - 6:37 pm 54. myth buster:

The good news, Otto, is that we don’t care if a majority of Obama’s sheep have no clue why hyperinflation will come, because if we can flip just 10% of them, we win easily. While it’s bad that there are that many people who are that clueless, we don’t need to convince all of them, or even a majority, 10% will be more than enough.

May 17, 2009 - 6:43 pm 55. BI:

To poster #21 Roger Godby

I don’t disagree with your figures, but they may not tell the whole story.

The Japanese national debt is largely financed by Japanese investors and not by other countries’ financial institutions. Hence no alarm in Bejing or Dubai about the level of the Japanese national debt. What percentage of the American debt is held by investors from other countries? The high percentage may be a large constraining force on what your government is able to do to “fix” the economy.

Don’t know much about Germany and Italy, but saw recently that Britain found a decided lack of interest in their latest gilt auction, presumably due to worries about repayment and/or devaluation by foreign investors.

May 17, 2009 - 8:50 pm 56. wGraves:

The problem is that, if you buy (GLD) to avoid inflation, you’re going to taxed at 90 % on the gains. So we need to keep it all off of the books, by buying physical gold, and handing it off to our children.

May 17, 2009 - 9:52 pm 57. JL:

#8. Jerry

I agree. If they had done, what she proposed back in 2008, there would not have been a financial crisis or a recession.

May 17, 2009 - 10:49 pm 58. JHM dba ''Realworlder":

(( No point in boring them with the whole thing, Mr. Bones! ))

(…) As it stumbles across its own bottom line, however, the fribble does manage to suggest that there may be hope for us all. It turns out that even a Neocomrade Roger, Viscount Kimball, is capable of a Luther-at-the Diet-of-Worms impersonation! Observe how boldly its lordship stands up against received Party-and-AEIdeology orthodoxy, as formulated authoritatively by its lordship’s Neocomrade Karl, Prince of Rove: the latter has laid it down that to

“believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality …. that’s not the way the world really works anymore … WE are an Empire now, and when WE act, WE create OUR own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — WE shall act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. WE are history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what WE do.’’ [3]

The fribble does not believe a syllable of that august Bushevik tripe and baloney, and it is not afraid to say so out loud:

“The discomfort [of ‘cognitive dissonance’] is a salubrious reminder that REALITY COUNTS FOR SOMETHING, that you cannot live a contradiction.”

Even subtracting a few points for the fribble’s evident inability to distinguish between changing one’s maind and cherishing a contradiction, one must award it high marks for prudence and courage, the two virtues in which other militant extremist neocomrades have been most signally deficient ever since 11 September 2001.

But God knows best.

Happy days.

(…)

[3] http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/17/magazine/17BUSH.html

May 18, 2009 - 3:31 am 59. Banned by Huffpo:

29. AThinkingPerson

“Surely when the inevitable recession arrives, even the illiterate, uneducated majority of the liberal left will finally realize what we’re facing.”

Nope. The Obamatrons will never wake up.

This country, as a good friend of mine likes to say, “Is headed down the shitter.”

Sadly, all we can do is watch in horror, with a huge dose of amazement thrown in.

May 18, 2009 - 7:17 am 60. Track-A-'Crat:

His words do have meaning, just the reverse of what he states.

It might help to think of President Obama as The Backwards Man:

http://trackacrat.com/2009/05/14/barack-obama-the-backwards-man/

May 18, 2009 - 9:42 am 61. paul_unalaska:

Delia: ‘..really makes one wonder who writes the crap his teleprompter spews out for him to read.’

Obama’s speeches are written by 27 year old John Favreau. And here we thought Obama is a wet-behind-the-ears kind of guy. Beyond words..

May 18, 2009 - 11:21 am 62. Cybergeezer:

48. jiggle the handle:
Nice handle; (jiggle, jiggle.) Accurate assessment, also.

May 19, 2009 - 6:24 am 63. Cybergeezer:

Wasting money on education? Look at how much has been spent (wasted) on Obama! And his current education is STILL costing the U.S. taxpayer! All the riches in the universe couldn’t make this dunce intelligent.

May 19, 2009 - 6:27 am 64. Cybergeezer:

And, look at Jimmy Carter; still gets burnt playing with matches!

May 19, 2009 - 6:29 am 65. David W. Lincoln:

As long as words have the meaning that Obambi wants them to have, not necessarily what is conventional, expect derision, contempt, and suspicion from those who stuck their necks out earlier for the United States.

May 19, 2009 - 8:21 am 66. ReConUSMC:

In the last election John Edward’s ran on the theme of “Two America “. Obama ran on “Change “we can believe in .
Boy do we have “” Radical Change” We can’t believe in like never before since our founding !!!!
Now I would have taken Hillary and Edward’s over Obama as President even though I greatly disliked all three . After all over than Bill eyes for minors he was far better than Obama is his first 100 days .
Edward’s screwed up with his Wife and making a baby by the “other women ” and he is paying dearly for both moronic acts .
Obama is screwing over Business badly that really means Screwing over Tax Paying Americans in the long run that need Jobs from those ”Capitalist ” Cos obviously Obama hates and wants over Tax , over regulate and Unionize all . Remember the base of Union since their founding .. was with all out war with all Cos they still see as the bitter enemy . Since they demand everyone is paid equal called ..’ Fascism /’Socialism “and there is no respect or the least bit of love or like for Capitalism .
Read 101 % union minded and totally dedicated Karl Marx , Y. Lien and Obama main mentor Saul Alinsky to 100 % UNION CONTROL on that very subject with their own equal Hate of Capitalism .
Simply Meaning more Billions from Union for one way Election Money and Votes for his next election and his radical leftist Congress in 2010 and again in 2012 .
He again used the Bully Pulpit at Arizona University to put down America terribly and Capitalism 21 different times I counted alone .
That has been his theme since the day he was elected in most of his speeches regularly like clock work . It rings of America is evil and bad ?I truly believe he believes now as do many others as well .

What We have in Obama is a rebirth of Rev, Wright’s hate filled words cleaned up with smoother words but with the same due course ansd intentions we have heard over and over .
Along with Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals and Y. Lenin Communist Manifesto .
Think not ? Read them both and again look at the Video’s of Rev Wrights’s preaching and you will be scared the B Jesus out of guaranteed .
Those are obviously Obama’ three play books for America’s sad future .
Obama obviously deeply believes you made the Poor Richer by making the rich poorer .
Well guess what we have a modern day example of that greatly failing .
In the late 60.s and early 70’s The Unions took over 22 different Iron , Sheet Medal long running plants in Va , W.VA and Pa .
Within 6 Years they all failed terribly even with Govt, assistance and there was more feuding between them than the Hat-fields and the McCoy’s .
You will notice there are no Union Wal Marts even though the Unions have Billions in the war chest to compete with Wal Mart .
Yeah Right , Wal Mart would run the Unions out of town quicker than Union people could shop for far better values and prices at WAL Mart !
That is why Obama’s Unions want to Unionize Wal Mart ..Duh !
Enough said !

May 19, 2009 - 3:42 pm 67. The Historian:

OBAMA ON GITMO: COMPLETE MISDIRECTION
If the left is angry about photos, how about what’s happening with their favorite terrorist detention center.

http://greensrealworld.blogspot.com/2009/05/obama-master-of-misdirection.html

May 19, 2009 - 9:17 pm 68. Berlet98:

An instance of words having meaning over actions and substance: None are so blind as those who will not see.

The crowds have now gone from what must had to have been the most publicized commencement ceremonies in the storied history of the University of Notre Dame.

The graduates are now off to pursue their careers or to a summer break prior to further schooling as their parents’ checkbooks breathe a sigh of relief from tuition payments.

However, the dust hasn’t come close to settling on the issues that clouded what should have otherwise been a sparkling, cloudless spring day.

Dust has a way of settling eventually and has already begun to besprinkle the Catholic plate, in unsettling ways.

Dusty plates may be an image that germaphobes find disquieting but it works in this instance. If that image is suggestive of dirt, all the better. Notre Dame’s Catholic plate became appreciably dirtier last Sunday.

First Place in the Dirtiest Catholic Plate Award for the second week of May 2009 is hereby conferred on the President of Notre Dame and on that formerly-Catholic institution.

The reasons are many for that dusty dirt: for inviting an abortionist to deliver this year’s commencement address, for granting him an honorary award, and for the failure of the 12,000 in the audience to rise up en masse during the graduation ceremony and quietly exit in graphic protest.

A fine public university, Arizona State, had previously shown a greater sense of institutional integrity by inviting the same guest to speak at its commencement but refusing to confer unearned honors on said guest.

That guest jested over the ASU rebuke and still was unworthy of being so honored by May 17th but Notre Dame had no moral qualms over granting him a Doctor of Laws honorary degree.

Apparently, the lure of prestige and a similar ideology superseded all other concerns for Notre Dame President Father John Jenkins who gleefully escorted his commencement guest into the Joyce Center, lauded his guest, and all but gushed over the reciprocated laudatory remarks.

None are so blind as those who will not see.

There were heroes in South Bend last Sunday,. . .
(Read the rest at http://genelalor.com)

May 19, 2009 - 11:21 pm