The Political Frog

Could it be dear reader that the evil and downtrodden GOP is gaining favor with the voting public? after eight years of impotent leadership and runaway spending the party that has been declared dead more often than disco is making a comeback. And it owes it all to Barack Obama for Obama it seems not only wants to emulate Lincoln but Bill Clinton as well.

It Was Clinton whose appointees had tax issues and it was also Clinton who had his Economic Stimulus plan thrown back in his face. All this set the stage for 1994. Fast forward 14 years and Obama seems determined to out do Clinton.  Three tax cheat appointees and a stimulus package that dwarfs Clinton’s in a Yao Ming sort of way…

Never underestimate Obama’s competitiveness.

The main complaint about GOP leadership during the last eight years has been the freight train spending, and the increase in the size of Government. Throw in a few scandals a medium sized Macaca and you end up with Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and a President with less experience than a High School shop teacher.

Enter the suddenly Conservative Republican party.

Obama’s continues to defend the Stimulus plan Nancy Pelosi wrote and Barack has not read. Meanwhile his speechwriters continue to punch out sound bytes for him to tell us that we as a nation will cease to exist on Tuesday if we do not pass this Stimulus package. Here I though it was the Conservatives that were fear mongers.  Obama is attempting to scare everyone into supporting this bill but the people seem to have woken up after blindly following the Liberal pied piper.

The argument is Obama’s (Pelosi’s) stimulus plan should pass because Obama is just so damn popular and gosh darn it people like him.  Well that argument is proving to be false as less and less people support the bill. When it comes to peoples pocket book the Presidents popularity is a moot point. A bad bill is a bad bill. Instead of trying to fix a bill that is unfix-able the GOP should draft their own that dealss with nothing but tax cuts, the housing crisis, and unemployment.

Obama refuses to cut the size of the bill and remove the pork. Something he promised would not be in the bill at the beginning. this has become Obama’s Iraq. Every time he opens his mouth the bill gets more and more unpopular and the GOP is reaping the rewards.

-Bert the Conservative Troubadour

Sadly after two weeks in office Barack Obama has proven to be the vapid, empty suit we all thought but hoped wouldn’t be. His lack of any real ideas on how to stimulate the economy was to be expected. His ignoring the obvious steps that need to  be taken, tax cuts is also not a surprise. Sadly all the rhetoric about a New era in responsibility was simply just that. Rhetoric. We got our first clue when Bill Richardson and his beard abruptly removed himself from consideration for Secretary of Commerce. Not to be outdone he chose Timothy Giethner who is supposedly the smartest man in the world of economics to navigate us deeper into a recession. When it was revealed that Giethner did not pay taxes but accepted reimbursement for those taxes Obama stood by his man. Not to be out done once more he is now standing by Tom Daschle who forgot to pay $128,000 and didn’t bother to pay them after he “learned” of his “mistake”. He did however correct the “mistake” afterbeing chosen by Obama to ruin the health care system.

How is this change? How is this a new tone in Washington? How is Obama doing anything different than what has been done in Washington for decades? The man who cheated the FED is now running the FED. the man who supposed to revamp out health care system does not know how to pay his taxes. For us the every day citizen this is a crime. For a member of Obama’s team it is a absolute boon. Did President Obama really have a vetting process or was that “just words”?

-Bert your Conservative Troubadour

Finally the GOP and the Conservative base have a fresh face to lead us out of the wilderness. Michael Steele the former Lt. Governor of the Liberal state of Maryland has become the Chairman of the Republican party. So has the party turned the page? Well they chose Steele over George Bush’s hand picked selection Mike Duncan. A DC insider. Aside from his sting as Lt. Governor he is as far from being a DC man as Hugo Chavez, but with better dress sense.

Slowly the GOP is shedding it’s image of a group of has beens that could of but didn’t really try for a group of young, dynamic, energized idealogues. Palin, Jindal, Pawlenty, and now Michael Steele. So what does Steele bering to the table?

Asside from his Conservative credentials he is genial, a good speaker and well liked. When he talks of Conservaatism he soeaks clearly and passionately. Steele Gets it and the people get it when he speaks. He’s not from DC so when he talks of Conservative values people tend to not roll their eyes and gaze at their watches. Steele bring some excitement to a very downtrodden movement. Just at the right time as the Democrats are moving swiftly to erode our rights

-Bert the Conservative Troubadour

Well apparently the bill has something of a loophole which would allow illegal immigrants to receive Government checks. yes the bill expressly disqualifies nonresident aliens however it allows those without Social Security numbers to receive the tax credit. Undocumented immigrants who are not eligible for a Social Security number can file with an individual taxpayer identification number. Of course this just one of many reasons why even the moderate and left leaning Republicans ran the other way.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey’s son is a lobbyist with the National Parks Conservation Association. Under the stimulus bill the group will receive $2.25 billion three times the Senate Appropriations Committee approved for park spending in its stimulus bill. Thankfully a Republican has called for an investigation though with Nancy Pelosi at the helm I doubt anything will come of it.

-Bert your Conservative Troubadour

As expected the House passed President Obama’s stimulus plan. As recently as last week Obama claimed to have bi partisan support for his plan. As late as yesterday morning he was meeting with the GOP trying to convince them he is right and they are Republicans. The result was a party line vote. 244 to 188 with 12 Democrats voting with the GOP. what this means is the pork ridden stimulus bill Obama has been hyping for weeks is halfway to becoming his and his party’s alone.

Now, one would think this is no big deal and, Obama doesn’t need Republican votes. In fact one would think Obama with his Elton john sized ego would want sole credit for something he claims is the the only way the country can be saved. Yet since taking office Obama’s message has gone from hope bypassing reality and heading straight to despair. literally using fear mongering to force public and Congressional support for his plan. Yet even with almost full Democrat support he tried desperately gain GOP support he did not need. Why? Obama does not have much faith in it fixing the economy.  Consolidating Democrat power yes. Economic recovery not so much. Aside from that the bill is full of pork. Something He pledged he would eliminate. What it boils down to is Obama needs Republican shoulders to share the blame come 2012.

As it stands now Obama and his merry band of Marxists own this bill….

$50 million for the National Endowment of the Arts to help “the arts community throughout the United States.”  
 
$2.1 billion is for Head Start
 
A further $2 billion is to be spent on Child Care Development Block Grants
 
$120 million to finance part-time work for seniors in community service agencies.
 
$500 million to speed the processing of applications for Social Security disability claims
 
$6 billion goes to college and universities
 
 $13 billion in Title I grants
 
 $13 billion in IDEA, Part B State grants  
 
$20 billion for increased food stamps
 
$1.7 billion is to be spent to help the homeless
 
$1 billion goes for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance program
 
$200 million goes for senior nutrition programs
 
$200 million for AmeriCorps

And that is just off the top of my head. This bill unpopular with the voters and will become even more so as the economy fails and we inch closer to the next election. And it has the Democrats fingerprints all over it.

-Bert your Conservative Troubadour

Looks like President Obama has taken a major step towards permanently bankrupting the US auto industry. Obama has given the states free reign to increase auto emission standards in an effort to combat greenhouse gases. To make matters worse he ordered auto manufacturers to start making more fuel-efficient cars.

Where has Obama been for the last few decades? Costly regulations and more expensive “environmentally friendly” cars are a major reason why the auto industry is on life support. So what we are seeing is the government giving the auto industry billions of dollars to pull it back from the edge of the cliff and then toss it down a well by piling on more regulations.  Sales figures prove Americans don’t like green cars. Aside from that they cost thousands more than conventional. If the industry is to rebound they need to sell more cars and limiting choice and making the cars more expensive will not accomplish that.

Unless of course Obama’s aim is to nationalize the industry. In that case the tiny three will indeed fail. Lada Riva anyone?

-Bert your Conservative Troubadour

We all knew that Obama had an ego that rivals Elton John and now it is getting him in trouble. 72 hours after we coronated President Obama told the Republican Congress not to listen to Rush Limbaugh. Interesting and a bit pathetic.  Has any other President tried such a thing? Obama is proving to have a glass jaw. If he can handle Limbaugh how will he handle the press corps? Are we to believe that Obama is not allowed to be criticized?

What puzzles me is why Obama thinks the GOP is listening to Rush Limbaugh when they are busy in Congress screwing things up. I doubt Rush is piped into the chambers. What his remaarks do is is reveal a man who is paranoid. This is a pretty sad sight to behold considering his approval rating.  We have seen him go after Conservative media personalities during the campaign and we have seen his obsession with Sean Hannity.

As it stands now Barack Obama is is taking a harder line with Conservative media rather than terrorists.

-Bert your Conservative Troubadour

The media continues to foam about how great of a talker Obama is. Speeches that are to be carved in stone. He instills confidence in people. He brings people together. These are the characteristics that got him elected. His words. if that is the case why wasn’t it his speechwriter that was sworn in instead of Obama?

So the Timothy Geithner, the tax dodge extraordinaire nomination MUST be passed by Congress. Why? Because he is the only one who can navigate us out of the financial crisis we now face. So my question here is this: Since Timmy Geithner was responsible for drafting the first edition of the Bush bailouts and it failed miserably, why should his “mistakes” be ignored so he gets the job and continues to do what has already proven to not work?

-Bert, your Conservative Troubadour

For some weeks the press has been mulling what president Bush’s legacy will be. (As if they won’t try to pin him as an evil warmonger) Anyway he seems bent on being remembered for the President that nationalized everything in the name of the economy. I understand his intention but I oppose his method. Regardless he has turned his sights to the auto industry and has gone back on his word and intends to bail out the tiny three. In doing this I fear he may have sealed their fate.

First of all the “Big three” are not the auto industry. They are but tiny players in an industry that they used to dominate. There is a thriving non union industry south of Detroit and though it is feeling the effects of the economy it is still expanding and building new plants. Notice I said “non Union”.

The GOP in their attempts to get the tiny three to restructure so they would not be returning begging for more. The major issue was labor costs succeeded in stopping the bill.. They need to be brought to within competitive range with the imports. Now the Republicans made it as flexible as possible yet the UAW refused to revisit the labor costs per employee until the current contract expires in 2011. Now I thought the tiny three were days away from expiration yet the UAW who supposedly looks out for the workers wants to wait until 2011. Actually it was a game of chicken between Bush and the UAW in Toyota’s. At the last minute Bush swerved off the road and ended up in a ditch covered in goat poo.

By saying that he would not allow the tiny three to collapse Bush effectively ceded all power to the UAW. They now can do as they like, or more to the point do nothing and the government will still bail them out. SO we the people who are footing the bill are paying now for changes that may never occur. And these changes that won’t be happeniong for 2 years will have them back asking us to open our wallets yet again.

Now the liberal spin on this is the evil Conservatives simply want to break the back of the unions. That’s ironic since it is the UAW with it’s rules and exorbitant benefits for retirees. Example 30 and out. If you start with the plant at 20 you can retire with full benefits at 50. However since said retiree is not elegiable for Medicare until age 65 even more generous benefits were demanded by the Union. At some point these benefits would kill the company. That point was reached a long time ago so now we are at the desperation point. All the GOP want is something realistic and a solid buisiness plan. The UAW won’t play ball and President Bush has decided to be the ball boy.

So the UAW gets its way and the tiny three gets its money. Come January the whole process will begin again. Then what? The same again? At this rate we the taxpayers are better off owning the car companies since we will have to continue supporting them. I am not in any way advocating nationalizing the tiny three but our current Administration is too niave and the UAW is too corrupt to make the necessary changes that would make the tiny three viable once more.

 It seems to me dear reader that the UAW knows that if the tiny three were to function like the imports there would be no need for them. They would become obsolete. Just look at the plants in the south where “right to Work” laws prevail. Average pay and benefits are roughly $45 an hour. With benefits like that you don’t need a Union and the UAW knows it.

 As it stands now the Bush Administration has all but secured the fate of the tiny three and it’s a question of who goes broke first. The car manufacturers or the government.

-Bert, your Conservative Troubadour in C Sharp

Surprisingly Louisiana ousted William Jefferson from Congress and seated not one but two Republicans.  You really have to be stinking up the place to lose to a Republican in Louisiana. At least that was the case. However it seems to be that the good folks in Louisiana are finally sick of the establishment in the state and the corruption that came with it. The election of Bobby Jindal was a good sign however they people could have simply tired of the inefferctive Kathleen Babineaux Blanco. However with the seating of not one but two Republicans perhaps the voters have realized that it’s just not working.

Jefferson has always been popular and continued to enjoy loyalty from his constituents even after his bribery scandal broke and the subsequent 90,000 dollars removed from his freezer. In fact they re-elected him anyway.

So what happened? Well it’s too early to really say for sure. But I can say that the Democrats down there don’t really get it. Those interviewd regarding the election often remarked on what he has done for the area. That stuns me. Places like New orleans were ghettos even before Katrina and he’s done little to help redevelop the area. It’s just another prime example of Democrat voters living in poverty believing their Representatives are helping them.

The Weekly Frog