THE CULT OF DISAPPOINTMENT

THOSE WHO VOTED FOR POTUS Obama have not walked away from him. Those who voted against him were never in the room. Those who voted against George Bush and Hank Paulson and the cranky, weary, predictably puckish John McCain are newly persuaded that there was no credible choice in 2008. The rookie or the train-wreck?

Fourteen months later, it is more clear that the Obamanation crowd chose their idea of the UnBush, and instead what they got was an UnAware. POTUS does not register how much polling trouble his party is in.

Those voters have now turned not into a big-hearted pumpkin awaiting their shining prince to carry them off into the Brave New World where no adults are allowed but into a steady drift of dead-eyed wanderers, perfectly ripened pickings for the ever so embracing cult of disappointment.

The red ink in the 2011 fiscal budget has ended all the dreams for Obamanation as well as the last-ditch McCainiacs. What remains is receivership, or something like it, reorganized Federal spending and paying off the debts without taking on new ones. The debts are the end of disappointment. Time to clean out the two-car garage called Congress.

Read it all.

OBAMA SOWS MIDEAST WHIRLWIND

From Frank Gaffney, Jr., an esteemed analyst for the Center for Security Policy, dated Jun 01, 2009, I received this letter warning us of those dire circumstances most of us who follow US foreign policy already realize, namely that the persistently barnstorming POTUS is boxing our own nation and our staunchest Middle East ally, Israel, into an impossible standard where self-defense is not about safety but about survival. However, Mr. Gaffney makes several other newsworthy disclosures.

Read for yourself:

FROM THIS VANTAGE POINT [Jerusalem], two events this week appear to be ominous straws in the wind, warnings of a "man-caused" maelstrom that may inexorably plunge the Middle East into another, potentially cataclysmic war.

The first is the fact that Israel feels obliged to undertake an unprecedented, country-wide civil defense exercise this week. At one point in its course, every man, woman and child in the Jewish State is supposed to seek shelter from a simulated attack of the kind Iran may shortly be able to execute against it.

The second is President Barack Obama's latest effort to reach out to the Muslim world, this time on June 4 from one of its most important capitals, Cairo. There, he is expected to make an address that will reiterate his previous statements on the subject—pronouncements that, unfortunately, can only have been interpreted by his intended audience as acts of submission.

If past is prelude, the President of the United States will: apologize yet again for purported offenses against Muslims by his country; promise to be respectful of Islam, including those who adhere to its authoritative, if virulent, theo-political-legal program known as Shariah; and enunciate diplomatic priorities and initiatives designed to reach out to America's enemies in the region, while putting excruciating pressure on its most reliable ally there, Israel.

This pressure has become more palpable by the day. It has taken various forms, including: U.S. stances adopted at the United Nations that will serve to isolate Israel; blank political and even financial checks for Palestinian thugs like Mahmoud Abbas; diminishing U.S.-Israeli cooperation on intelligence and military matters; and the withholding from Israel of helicopters (and perhaps other weaponry) being provided to Arab states.

Perhaps the most chilling example of this coercive pressure so far, however, was originally reported in the Israeli paper Yediot Aharonot and given international prominence by my esteemed colleague and Jerusalem Post columnist, Caroline Glick. According to these accounts, in a recent lecture in Washington, U.S. Army Lieutenant General Keith Dayton, the American officer charged with training Palestinian military forces in Jordan, made a shocking declaration.

In Ms. Glick's words, "[Gen. Dayton] indicated that if Israel does not surrender Judea and Samaria within two years, the Palestinian forces he and his fellow American officers are now training at a cost of more than $300 million could begin killing Israelis." She went on to note that neither the general nor the Obama administration seemed to find this prospect grounds for rethinking the wisdom of such a training-and-arming program. In fact, her column observed that Defense Secretary Robert Gates "just extended Dayton's tour of duty for an additional two years and gave him the added responsibility of serving as Obama's Middle East mediator George Mitchell's deputy."

Taken together with the U.S. administration's refusal to come to grips with what truly is the most serious threat to peace in the Middle East—Iran's rising power and growing aggressiveness, reflecting in part its incipient nuclear weapons capabilities—the stage is being inexorably set for the next, and perhaps most devastating, regional conflict.

Whether the signals Mr. Obama is sending are intended to communicate such a message or not, they are going to be read by Israel's enemies as evidence of a profound rift between the United States and the Jewish State. In this part of the world, that amounts to an invitation to an open season on Israel.

It is hard to believe that the Obama Middle East agenda enjoys the support of the American people or their elected representatives in Congress. Historically, the public and strong bipartisan majorities on Capitol Hill have appreciated that an Israel that shares our values, that is governed democratically and that is in the cross-hairs of the same people who seek our destruction is an important ally. Quite apart from a sense of moral and religious affinity for the Jewish people's struggle to survive in their ancient homeland, most of us recognize that it is in the United States' strategic interest to stand with Israel.

It is worrisome in the extreme that Mr. Obama does not appear to share this appreciation. To those who worried about his affinity for the Saudi king and Islam more generally and his longstanding ties to virulent critics of Israel like Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi and former Harvard professor-turned-National Security Council staffer Samantha Power, the President's attitude is not exactly a surprise. His administration's posture may have been further reinforced by Arab-American pollster John Zogby's recent Forbes Magazine article arguing that friends of Israel made up John McCain's constituency, not Obama's. (This raises an interesting question about the sentiments towards Israel of the 78% of American Jews who voted for the latter in 2008.)

My guess, however, is that, as the implications of President Obama's Mideast policies—for the United States as well as Israel - become clearer, he is going to find himself facing the sort of popular and congressional revolt that has confronted him in recent weeks on Guantanamo Bay. The question is: Will such a reaffirmation of American solidarity with and support for Israel come in time to prevent the winds of war being whipped up by Mr. Obama's posturing and rhetoric—and driving Israelis into bomb shelters—from wreaking havoc in the Middle East, and perhaps far beyond?

Not hardly. Just a day after his warm massage of His Majesty in Saudi Arabia, and on the heels of his suggestive distortion that America is one of the largest Muslim nations (after declaring that the US was no longer a Christian nation) in the world, the truth-challenged but egregiously adored POTUS gave his much anticipated speech in Cairo this morning, brimming with bogus remarks about the nature and history of Islam. To his credit, however, he did concede in rather soft terms that he believed Israel had a right to exist as an independent state.

Such a marvelous concession after all these years from such a marvelous gamer. Unfortunately, he also suggested that Iran had a right to "peaceful nuclear power" which as we all know is a red herring given the evidence Iran has provided that it wants to extinguish the nation of Israel with one mighty blow, and liquidate every remaining infidel Jew in the necessary clean-up. Frankly, this is not an acceptable solution, Mister President.

JOLTIN' JOE BIDEN RIDES AGAIN

HERE IT IS. We knew this gimme was coming down the pike, and it's a real spooker. Hear the unmistakable warning in a Joltin' Joe Biden's stump speech of a coming crisis once Obama is elected POTUS.

"Mark my words," the Democratic vice presidential nominee said at the Seattle fundraiser, "it will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy. The world is looking. We're about to elect a brilliant 47-year-old senator president of the United States of America. Remember I said it standing here if you don't remember anything else I said. Watch, we're gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy."

"I can give you at least four or five scenarios from where it might originate," Biden said, including the Middle East and Russia as possibilities, "and he's gonna need help. And the kind of help he's gonna need is, he's gonna need you—not financially to help him—we're gonna need you to use your influence, your influence within the community, to stand with him. Because it's not gonna be apparent initially, it's not gonna be apparent that we're right."

Biden also mentioned the current economic crisis. "Gird your loins," Biden told the crowd. "We're gonna win with your help, God willing, we're gonna win, but this is not gonna be an easy ride.

Uh Joe, why don't you lay out those four or five scenarios for us, Enquiring mionds want to know. Or perhaps we'll just vote for John McCain. He's probably not THE ONE who the Soviets, or the Iranians, or the Syrians, or al-Qaeda will need to test since they already know how he will play the game of chicken.

Or would they?

But of course the ever hapless corporate MSM are salivating at what they caricature as more of the same old GOP dirty tricks, now accusing the McCain camp of using—OMG can you guess it, yes, more of those nasty, unsubstantiated fear tactics—in running the ad you just watched at the top of this entry.

Uh, friends, let's see. Those are Joltin' Joe Biden's own words, his very own daisy chain, or perhaps in this case, his very own daisy cutter in what was spoken in earnestness to rally his latte-soaked Seattle troops a mere ten days ago. Can I get a witness? Amen! Thank God Almighty!

Fact is I heard him mouth those words, and I also read that he, or rather his current boss man—the junior senator from the state of Illinois—Barack Obama try to swashbuckle his way out of it later by characterizing that section of Joltin' Joe's speech as nothing more than rhetorical flourishes. Is that how they lift and separate the heavy in Southside Chicago these days? Whew! Pathetic misdirection is all these embarrassing Obama media folks can seem to muster.

Yeah, I know. Both sides do it. No pledge here.

MCCAIN DEALS OBAMA A FACE CARD

"WITH SO MUCH ON THE LINE, for America and the world, the debate that matters most right now is taking place in the United States Capitol—and I intend to join it. Senator Obama is doing the same. America should be proud of the bipartisanship we are seeing."

A true leader spoke, when yesterday Obama was playing politics, and today, when Candidate McCain could have buried his opponent with a nod to the facts of Obama's latest absentee snarkyness as this financial crisis consumes everyone but the Chosen One himself, he once again takes the high road!

Concerning the blogosphere debate on which candidate will get a bigger bounce from this fiasco, I think it is too early to tell, but if McCain is dealing Obama a face card by trying to include him in a bi-partisanship maneuver, it can also still be said that he nevertheless controls the deal.

Folks, as the calendar winds down to Election Tuesday, you will have the opportunity to cast your vote for a myriad of third party hopefuls, or to select one of the two major party choices—opting for a proven leader who puts his nation and his honor consistently to the test or settling for a political opportunist who ducks and dabbles in the very worst form of Chicago machine politics...

For more on this meltdown, specifically the public rebellion against a Federal bailout, check out this George Stephanopoulos article comments page. Maybe this bailout should be killed by any means necessary, but I still believe some sort of Federal poop scoop is necessary in terms of stabilizing the global markets. I am hoping Senator McCain comes out against it unless a total reorganization with full and absolute accountability for the industry culprits is reached.

Truth has consequences. Why are we dishing it out for Wall Street again? Wouldn’t it be much cheaper and far more fair to all concerned—especially the taxpayers—to simply quarantine the bad loans and renegotiate with the home owners rather than risk of total devaluation and replacement of our currency? Surely this is not the clandestine but moderately hyped amero caper already on the scene reporting for duty, is it?

Does it mean that each and every asset that is sold at a profit with taxpayer funds will result in 20% being stripped from the public and put into the hands of private organizations such as ACORN, regardless of how many other toxic assets result in total loss to the public e.g. of billions of dollars? If so, it is ensured that this “bail out” will never be in the public interest, but indeed does have Obama's socialist fingerprints all over it. Take a gander at this language in the bill:

TRANSFER OF A PERCENTAGE OF PROFITS.

1. DEPOSITS.Not less than 20 percent of any profit realized on the sale of *each troubled asset* purchased under this Act shall be deposited as provided in paragraph (2).
2. USE OF DEPOSITS.Of the amount referred to in paragraph (1)
1. 65 percent shall be deposited into the Housing Trust Fund established under section 1338 of the Federal Housing Enterprises Regulatory Reform Act of 1992 (12 U.S.C. 4568); and
2. 35 percent shall be deposited into the Capital Magnet Fund established under section 1339 of that Act (12 U.S.C. 4569).

REMAINDER DEPOSITED IN THE TREASURY. All amounts remaining after payments under paragraph (1) shall be paid into the General Fund of the Treasury for reduction of the public debt.

Oh, I see. It's crystal clear now. Let's funnel more graft to the ACORN nuts. Why? Because they are under investigation in several states right now for voter fraud, and they must need the cashflow. Guess the name of their attorney not so long ago or far away? Yep. That very same handsome and articulate Barack Obama—now the unmitigated darling of the DNC, the MSM, his babbling minions, Himself, and his Chicago-styled Revolutionary Guard (not necessarily in that order)...

Check here for a graphic connecting all the ACORN nuts.

This Federal bailout, as it has been floated, seems highly suspicious unless strong multi-level oversight is provided, so that the thieves and culprits of this fiasco are are not further enriched at taxpayer expense. However, all the dust has cleared, here is how one wigwag has put it:

Working people will be far better off if the Paulson plan is passed than if its not. It is more progressive to let taxpayers pay the tab. Why? Because we have a progressive tax system. The top 1 percent pay 28 percent of all federal taxes. The top 5 percent pays 36 percent of all federal taxes. The bottom 40 percent pay no federal taxes.

Thirty million working Americans have traditional pensions that will be unable to pay benefits if the market collapses. Over 34 million working Americans have 401Ks that are mostly invested in the stock market. If the market plunges, their retirement plans plunge. Some 45 million Americans have IRAs with a significant portion invested in stocks. For many Americans this is all they have other than Social Security.

It is far more progressive to let taxpayers pick up the tab than shareholders. The wealthier you are the more taxes you pay. If all your assets are wrapped up in your home (the price will plunge even more if the Paulson plan isn’t passed) and your retirement account a stock market plunge will be devastating.

End of story? Not quite.