Richard Minitier – Leading From Behind (St. Martins Press)

The President of the United States is often referred to as the “leader of the free world.” The underlying premise of award winning, investigative journalist Richard Minitier’s latest best seller Leading From Behind” is an examination of the leadership skills of President Barack Obama.

 

Minitier examines Obama’s quick rise to the highest office in the land and dissects Obama’s leadership, notably on some very high profile issues like debt/taxes, healthcare, and foreign policy issues like killing Bin Laden and Israel..

While the so-called “Affordable Care Act” has been labeled one of Obama’s signature first term achievements, Minitier makes the case that Obama amounts to nothing more than an absentee landlord when it came to getting the heavy lifting done on getting the bill passed. While it is the legislative branches purview to write and pass legislation, it is the President who often drives the bus on what they deem to be pet projects or legislation.

Certainly healthcare reform was front and center on the Obama agenda when he took office in 2009. Yet when it came to deliver the goods on a reform plan, Obama bailed and left the heavy lifting to then House Speaker, Nancy “we have to pass the bill to find out what’s in it” Pelosi.

If you have any working knowledge of Obama’s brief exploits in elective office where he made of habit of not taking a stand, not leading and not voting or voting present. In the Illinois state house, Obama voted present 129 times during his tenure. The folks at  govtrack.org place Obama at the mid-low point, if albeit to the far left end of the spectrum when it came to leading on legislation in his two grueling years in the U.S. Senate. Obama chose to sit back while old dog Democrats like Reid, Feinstein, Kennedy, Clinton, Biden, and Specter took the legislative lead.

A quick look at “key” votes in 2008 (according to Project Vote Smart) Obama, a man of the people who claims to care about the middle class, he did not vote on legislation ranging from; Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEP), funding for AIDS/TB/Malaria prevention, a Medicare Bill, Housing foreclosure assistance program and an economic stimulus plan, among others.  

During the 2008 Presidential campaign some pundits were critical about Obama’s lack of experience and his voting record as his desire to pursue higher office and not want to leave a trail or record to have called into question. Minitier however points to a guy not so concerned with being on the record, but the exact opposite of a leader; a guy who is disinterested, rick averse and generally believes he is above it all.

Leading From Behind paints a Barack Obama as a guy who truly believes that he was elected President and he should get everything he wants; someone who confuses Presidents with dictators. It clearly seeps through his approach to leadership, to dictate without having to do the heavy lifting of actual governing. Actual governing can and should pawned be off on others that are beneath him; hence his passing the real work off to others, mostly women. Given the tenor of his campaign’s claims that Republicans are engaging in a “war on women” it makes you wonder about Obama’s attitudes toward women when they are positioned as mere work horses.

Who's the Biggest Jizzbag?!

Not sure if it's the election inching ever closer or what, but the whack-a-mole Liberals seem to be getting nuttier by the second. Some comments they're making have me wondering who the biggest liberal jizzbag is.

Some examples for your consideration:

Joe Biden

Liberals love to pass off the nearly continuous gaffs of Vice President Joe Biden as "Joe being Joe" but the more this guys does and says the more I wonder if the soon to be 70 year old is in the early stages of dementia or just plan batshit crazy!

Recently Biden was among the contingent of President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who met with families of the victims of the terrorist attacks in Libya...let me repeat that to be perfectly clear; VICTIMS OF THE TERRORIST ATTACK IN LIBYA. Biden approached Charles Wood, the father of Tyrone Wood, who heroically tried to rescue the Ambassador to Libya, and asked Mr. Wood "did your son always have balls the size of cue balls/"

Mr. Wood recounts the story in this long, but worthwhile clip:

Seriously is that an appropriate comment ever, let alone in this somber setting? Keep in mind this joker is oen heartbeat away from being President!

Ted Turner

CNN founder, environmental wingnut, and certifiable loon Ted Turner appeared on Piers Morgan's CNN mess recently and since no one watches, I fugured you'd need to see this amazing clip of this batshit crazy Liberal commenting that he's happy that more American soldiers are commiting suicide than are dying in war.

Not sure what this ass clown is doing these days, but if he's selling something, product or service he deserves to be boycotted and put out of business! This jizz needs to be taught a lesson and treated the worst way possible and for him that is to be ignored!

Paul Krugman

New York Times columnist and alleged economist Paul Krugman recently told the Liberal Huff Po folks; “I think there’s a real chance that [Romney will] manage to pursue a policy in the first couple of years that simultaneously blows up the deficit and depresses the economy.”

Has this guy been sleeping for the past four years? Of course what would expect from the clown who said that Obama's economic stimulus plan failed, because it wasn't large enough!

Paul Krugman: Double-Dip Recession If Romney Wins

Things That Drive Me Crazy

Has we approach Election Day and the political season starts to boil, there are a huge number of things that drive me absolutely crazy! Stupid politicians, even more ignorant members of the media and generally stupid voters truly push me over the edge.

So I decided to run just a hand full down and try to explain the stupidity-

Stupidity- I just love when politicians, generally liberal, Democrat politicians say that “tax cuts cost too much” or we “we can’t afford tax cuts.”

Reality- Tax cuts do not cost the government anything. Think about it. How does the government allowing you to keep more of your money, “cost” them anything? It’s not like you give them the money, they take possession of it, then they give it back! They never have/had it. Let me explain it in simple terms, even liberals should be able to understand; this would be like me saying to you, “hey you owe me $20.” You never loaned me $20. I never did any work or gave you anything that is valued at $20. When you don’t pay me; I go around and say that you cost me $20. Much like the government in the tax cut example, I assumed that you owed me $20 so it was just like me having that money; mystical, government thinking at best!

Stupidity – “Mitt Romney wants to give tax breaks to his big business cronies.”

Reality – Let me say this as clearly and simply as possible: BUSINESSES DO NOT PAY TAXES. Yes, you read that right…BUSINESSES DO NOT PAY TAXES. If you are a business owner, yes you built that! And if you want to keep it, you know that you have to price your products and/or services to include the amount of taxes that you will have to pay to the layers of government. I don’t care if you’re making widgets, creating web pages, or selling me breakfast, you know how much the raw materials cost, the cost of the staff to make it, turning the lights on and other equipment, heck even the cost of that equipment over time, and you price your stuff accordingly, including the taxes and some margin for profit. Those costs get passed through to your customers so at the end of the day, businesses don’t pay taxes! So when politicians talking about raising taxes, adding regulations, and things like raising the minimum wage, businesses aren’t going to pay the additional costs out of their profits, they will simply re-price everything to cover those increases and pass it along to the end consumer. If they are in an extremely competitive business, they may have to absorb some or all of those costs, then they may have to dip into that profit margin and that will have an impact on things like adding staff, growing product lines or locations and salary/benefit increases. 

Stupidity – when it comes to taxes; “The rich need to pay their fair share”

Reality – I am not sure what the definition of “fair” is; given that nearly 50% of U.S. workers pay NO FEDERAL INCOME TAXES. The top 10% of earners currently pay 70% of the total tax nut! What do you think is fair? I have always been a big believer in the mile/inch example. If liberals had their way the tax base would be an inch wide and the taxes would go a mile deep. I believe that fairness calls for the opposite; that the tax base should be a mile wide and that taxes should go an inch deep. Get it? We put more people into the work force to grow that base; in the process we spread the burden over a wider range of people. That way everybody pays something and the burden isn’t left with the few.

Stupidity – As Vice President Joe Biden scoffed and snickered his way through the VP debate he chuckled that the proposed tax increase would “impact only 2.5% of small businesses.”

Reality – while the chuckleheads in the Obama administration will tell you that the 2.5% is “small potatoes” they won’t tell you that that equates to 894,000 businesses! They definitely won’t tell you that if these increases take place, based on the current economic system most businesses project that they will cut 2-4 workers to absorb the impact of the tax increase…see businesses don’t pay taxes above. Do some basic math, cutting 2-4 employees would range from 1,788,000 to 3,576,000 more of your fellow Americans on the un-employment line. Small potatoes…right? Proving once again what a dumbass Biden is.

Stupidity – “The economy is better positioned to handle higher gas prices”

Reality – While driving one day, I heard that gem escape the lips of some member of the genius media class…unfortunately, I didn’t catch who dropped that pearl of wisdom. But it got me thinking; A- Does anybody really think that the fragile (and even that term is generous) U.S. economy is in any position to “handle” higher prices at the pump? B- Where are the Liberal, Democrat members of Congress who were soooooo apoplectic about blaming “oilmen” Bush and Cheney for the high price of gas? Then Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi  and the Dems held a price conference at a gas station with the price of $3.19 a gallon as the back drop, today a photo of that same station with a price of $4.45 per gallon.

 

Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) issued a release that day, July 12, 2006 stating; “Oil companies are tipping American families upside down and shaking money out of their pockets and guess who is helping them? The Bush Administration and this GOP Congress. Last week, a gallon of regular gasoline averaged $2.93 nationally, which represents a $0.71 increase over prices at the same time last year, and a whopping $1.66 increase over the $1.26 charged for a gallon of regular gasoline when Bush took office.”

Yet today they only thing coming from Liberal Democrats is…the sounds of silence…insert the sound of crickets here. Seriously…the price of gas has more than doubled since Obama took office (then $1.84 or $1.79 per gallon depending on the survey you read) and has remained consistently high and yet there is not talk about investigations or protest from Democrats. The solution is simple; start to tap into the resources available in this country. While Obama continues to lie about his record on domestic oil production claiming it’s increased, the reality is he has put a road block in front of new production that isn’t taking place on private lands; the only increase is coming on private lands, like the shale oil  in North Dakota and the Marcellus Shale right here in PA. Gee wonder why North Dakota has a 3% unemployment rate and a growing economy? It’s really not brain surgery.