I found this on Laura Ingrahams' Blog. No sense plagerizing, it says it all!
May 26, 2010
The plug and play administration
Posted by Laura Ingraham
Obama's schedule of late reads like a self-indulgent narcissist's dream come true:
April 23: Four days after the oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, Barack and Michelle begin their golf-filled vacation in North Carolina.
April 26: Even after it is clear that thousands upon thousands of gallons of crude are spilling into the Gulf daily, Obama pays no real attention to the crisis. He's busy entertaining the New York Yankees at the White House.
April 29: Tired of campaigning for legislation in stops across the country, Obama stays in Washington, D.C.-and attends a DNC fundraiser at a private residence.
May 1: To freshen up before his photo op in the Gulf area the next day, Obama delivers a commencement address at the University of Michigan and then yuks it up with celebs at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner.
May 17: Obama hosts UConn's women's basketball team at the White House.
May 19: 30 days after the oil rig explosion, Obama enjoys the company of New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez as singer Beyonce provides a live performance at the White House State Dinner.
May 25: 36 days into the spill and after repeatedly stating that he would not rest until the leak was stopped, Obama attends a $20,000/plate dinner for Sen. Barbara Boxer in California. At the same time, a recently-taped sports interview with TNT's Marv Albert airs during an NBA playoff game.
And the whirlwind of fun is hardly over! His Memorial Day weekend vacation plans were changed to squeeze in another Gulf photo op this Friday. And, after he skips out on the usual Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery, Barack will return to D.C. in time to host a concert with Paul McCartney at the White House.
With such a tight schedule, Obama hasn't had time to tend to a few important real-world matters. For example:
- Meeting with Arizona's governor about the illegal immigration crisis she's being forced to tackle almost singlehandedly
- Reading the Arizona law he continues to lambaste
- Doing anything to stop the oil spill other than demonize BP and reiterate that his boot is on the company's throat
To tamp down concern over its lazy response, the administration has leaked word that Obama-wait for it!-cursed as he vented his frustration. The president's order to "plug the damn hole" certainly proves his seriousness! With just enough luck his heavy lifting may be over soon and he can get back to plugging events into his social calendar.
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
Gulf Oil Leak - Administration Incompetence and Spin
I found this article in the Mobile Press-Register. It has a Video showing that officials from NOAA were predicting much higher flow rate of oil. We didn't learn of this until a few days ago : (
Breaking News from the Press-Register
Local news updates from Mobile and surrounding communities
Breaking News, Mississippi Press, Shared - Birmingham, Shared - Huntsville, Top Stories »
Video shows federal officials knew on April 22nd of the potential for massive oil flow in Gulf spill to reach 4.6 Million Gallons per day. If you look its right on the white board.
The MMS Agency also did not have the # 1 recommended solution (Fire Booms) on hand and they still aren't there.
And Obama has been telling this that he and his administration have been on this since day 1 (but he only visited the beach for 4 hrs today! He said yesterday that he is accountable. Does that make any of you feel warm and fuzzy?
Can he Spin his way out of this one?
Can he slip and slide and blame Clinton for the Sestak fiasco?
By Ben Raines
May 01, 2010, 1:15PM
A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration video, shot as officials coordinated response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, shows that federal officials almost immediately worried that the oil well could leak up to 110,000 barrels per day, or 4.6 million gallons.
The video appears on a federal Web site.
It was filmed in Seattle, at NOAA's Western Regional Center, as scientists and federal officials in Seattle, Houston and New Orleans engaged in telephone conferences, according to a companion document on the Web site.
View full size(NOAA video still)Federal officials discuss the Gulf of Mexico oil spill soon after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig. The image is a still frame from a NOAA Web site video depicting the meeting at the agency's Western Regional Center in Seattle.
The video appears to have been edited, and it was shot by a person carrying a camera from room to room.
In it, officials are discussing the search for survivors of the Deepwater Horizon explosion. There is a hand-drawn map of the spill dated April 22. At one point, the video freezes on a sign next to a door that reads, "War Room."
In one scene, officials say that the estimate for the leak in a worst-case scenario is between 65,000 and 100,000 barrels per day. A dry erase board on the wall reads "Estim: 64,000 to 110,000 bbls/day. CNN reported 300,000 gal/day."
The high end of the estimate, 110,000 barrels, is about 4.6 million gallons. At that spill rate, 32 million gallons of oil would enter the Gulf every week. By comparison, the entire Exxon Valdez spill was about 11 million gallons.
Officials estimate current flow from the damaged well at 210,000 gallons a day.
It is unclear from the video what events would have to transpire to raise the flow rate higher.
A confidential NOAA report, dated April 28 and circulated among federal agencies, makes similar projections regarding spill size in a worst-case situation.
View full size(NOAA video still)A hand-drawn map of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill dated April 22, 2010, is seen in this image from a video downloaded from the NOAA Web site. The video shows federal officials discussing the oil spill soon after the Deepwater Horizon exploded.
It describes newly discovered leaks in the tangle of riser pipe, attributing them to ongoing erosion of the pipe. The riser pipe, in this case about 5,000 feet long, connects the wellhead on the sea floor to the drilling rig on the surface.
"If the riser pipe deteriorates further, the flow could become unchecked," reads the report.
On Thursday, the day after the NOAA report was circulated, BP officials said they were worried about "erosion" of the piping.
Sand is an integral part of the formations that hold oil under the Gulf. The raw crude rising from the bottom of a well carries sand and other abrasive materials. In effect, the oil is sandblasting the piping as it rushes through with tremendous force, according to petroleum engineers.
"I think we need to be prepared for it to be the spill of the decade," Debbie Payton of NOAA, the meeting's coordinator, says during the NOAA video.
NOAA did not immediately respond to the Press-Register's request for comment on the video.
• EARLIER REPORT: Government fears Deepwater Horizon well could become unchecked gusher
View full size(NOAA video still)A still image from a video downloaded from the NOAA Web site shows a dry erase board with figures depicting the potential oil flow. Oil has been spewing into the Gulf of Mexico since the offshore drilling rig exploded and sank. Eleven oil rig workers are missing and presumed to be dead.
Breaking News from the Press-Register
Local news updates from Mobile and surrounding communities
Breaking News, Mississippi Press, Shared - Birmingham, Shared - Huntsville, Top Stories »
Video shows federal officials knew on April 22nd of the potential for massive oil flow in Gulf spill to reach 4.6 Million Gallons per day. If you look its right on the white board.
The MMS Agency also did not have the # 1 recommended solution (Fire Booms) on hand and they still aren't there.
And Obama has been telling this that he and his administration have been on this since day 1 (but he only visited the beach for 4 hrs today! He said yesterday that he is accountable. Does that make any of you feel warm and fuzzy?
Can he Spin his way out of this one?
Can he slip and slide and blame Clinton for the Sestak fiasco?
By Ben Raines
May 01, 2010, 1:15PM
A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration video, shot as officials coordinated response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, shows that federal officials almost immediately worried that the oil well could leak up to 110,000 barrels per day, or 4.6 million gallons.
The video appears on a federal Web site.
It was filmed in Seattle, at NOAA's Western Regional Center, as scientists and federal officials in Seattle, Houston and New Orleans engaged in telephone conferences, according to a companion document on the Web site.
View full size(NOAA video still)Federal officials discuss the Gulf of Mexico oil spill soon after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon offshore drilling rig. The image is a still frame from a NOAA Web site video depicting the meeting at the agency's Western Regional Center in Seattle.
The video appears to have been edited, and it was shot by a person carrying a camera from room to room.
In it, officials are discussing the search for survivors of the Deepwater Horizon explosion. There is a hand-drawn map of the spill dated April 22. At one point, the video freezes on a sign next to a door that reads, "War Room."
In one scene, officials say that the estimate for the leak in a worst-case scenario is between 65,000 and 100,000 barrels per day. A dry erase board on the wall reads "Estim: 64,000 to 110,000 bbls/day. CNN reported 300,000 gal/day."
The high end of the estimate, 110,000 barrels, is about 4.6 million gallons. At that spill rate, 32 million gallons of oil would enter the Gulf every week. By comparison, the entire Exxon Valdez spill was about 11 million gallons.
Officials estimate current flow from the damaged well at 210,000 gallons a day.
It is unclear from the video what events would have to transpire to raise the flow rate higher.
A confidential NOAA report, dated April 28 and circulated among federal agencies, makes similar projections regarding spill size in a worst-case situation.
View full size(NOAA video still)A hand-drawn map of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill dated April 22, 2010, is seen in this image from a video downloaded from the NOAA Web site. The video shows federal officials discussing the oil spill soon after the Deepwater Horizon exploded.
It describes newly discovered leaks in the tangle of riser pipe, attributing them to ongoing erosion of the pipe. The riser pipe, in this case about 5,000 feet long, connects the wellhead on the sea floor to the drilling rig on the surface.
"If the riser pipe deteriorates further, the flow could become unchecked," reads the report.
On Thursday, the day after the NOAA report was circulated, BP officials said they were worried about "erosion" of the piping.
Sand is an integral part of the formations that hold oil under the Gulf. The raw crude rising from the bottom of a well carries sand and other abrasive materials. In effect, the oil is sandblasting the piping as it rushes through with tremendous force, according to petroleum engineers.
"I think we need to be prepared for it to be the spill of the decade," Debbie Payton of NOAA, the meeting's coordinator, says during the NOAA video.
NOAA did not immediately respond to the Press-Register's request for comment on the video.
• EARLIER REPORT: Government fears Deepwater Horizon well could become unchecked gusher
View full size(NOAA video still)A still image from a video downloaded from the NOAA Web site shows a dry erase board with figures depicting the potential oil flow. Oil has been spewing into the Gulf of Mexico since the offshore drilling rig exploded and sank. Eleven oil rig workers are missing and presumed to be dead.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Another Commission, Another Delay Tactic
Remember the Campaign and all those promises:
• 10/7/08, “I want to go line by line through every item n the Federal budget and eliminate programs that don’t work….
• 10/15/08, “We’ve been living beyond our means and were going to have to make some adjustments. Now what I’ve done throughout this campaign is to propose a net spending cut.”
• 03/08, “We can no longer accept a process that doles out EARMARKS based on a member of Congress’ seniority, rather than the merit of the project.”
• To the thrill of technology and transparency advocates, candidate Obama promised sunlight before signing: "As president," his campaign website said, "Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days."
Well, so much for “taking the helm of the ship”. Now the President has decided to “outsource” the attack on spending and has formed a Commission.
I can hear it now, on mainstream media and from the “lips of liberals”; “The President is attacking the Spending problem – he has formed a Commission! Many of remember the old quote, “a committee/commission is a group of people who individually were unable to get anything done but get together where they collectively decide that nothing can be done”. (Sounds like Congress.) The Commission is called, “The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform”.
With 22 Cabinet Heads, 38 Czars and Rambo's massive "Executive Office of the President" AND the 545 members of Congress that creates all spending Bills, you would think that they already had enough people to attack spending, right? Wrong, these are politicians, they don't reduce spending. They don't even read the bills so they are not going to review the budget Line by Line!
Do you think the Commission will report its findings before the mid-term elections in November?
If they have the nerve to recommend major cuts do you think Obama would aggressively pursue them? Do you think the Congress would support them?
Not likely! I think we all know that the Commission is nothing but another Political delay tactic to make it look like something is being done but will fade away after the mid-term elections.
Disengenuous politics is alive and well in Washington!
If they won't attack the Deficit Spending then we need to attack them by going to the polls in November and issuing lots of Pink Slips!
• 10/7/08, “I want to go line by line through every item n the Federal budget and eliminate programs that don’t work….
• 10/15/08, “We’ve been living beyond our means and were going to have to make some adjustments. Now what I’ve done throughout this campaign is to propose a net spending cut.”
• 03/08, “We can no longer accept a process that doles out EARMARKS based on a member of Congress’ seniority, rather than the merit of the project.”
• To the thrill of technology and transparency advocates, candidate Obama promised sunlight before signing: "As president," his campaign website said, "Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days."
Well, so much for “taking the helm of the ship”. Now the President has decided to “outsource” the attack on spending and has formed a Commission.
I can hear it now, on mainstream media and from the “lips of liberals”; “The President is attacking the Spending problem – he has formed a Commission! Many of remember the old quote, “a committee/commission is a group of people who individually were unable to get anything done but get together where they collectively decide that nothing can be done”. (Sounds like Congress.) The Commission is called, “The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform”.
With 22 Cabinet Heads, 38 Czars and Rambo's massive "Executive Office of the President" AND the 545 members of Congress that creates all spending Bills, you would think that they already had enough people to attack spending, right? Wrong, these are politicians, they don't reduce spending. They don't even read the bills so they are not going to review the budget Line by Line!
Do you think the Commission will report its findings before the mid-term elections in November?
If they have the nerve to recommend major cuts do you think Obama would aggressively pursue them? Do you think the Congress would support them?
Not likely! I think we all know that the Commission is nothing but another Political delay tactic to make it look like something is being done but will fade away after the mid-term elections.
Disengenuous politics is alive and well in Washington!
If they won't attack the Deficit Spending then we need to attack them by going to the polls in November and issuing lots of Pink Slips!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Pravda US?
If you read between the lines, you sometimes get a startling revelation about someones philosophy. Following is an quote from Obama's speech this past weekend to the graduating class at Hampton College.
"Meanwhile, you’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t rank all that high on the truth meter. With iPods and iPads; Xboxes and PlayStations; information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment. All of this is not only putting new pressures on you; it is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy."
Like his "spontaneous reply to Joe the Plumber" regarding the Distribution of Wealth, this is further indication of "Our Dear Leader's" political philosophy - Marxism. Pretty soon he will issue a list of "approved reading material" and appoint a Cszar to oversee production of non approved material.
I can't imagine what will happen if this duplicitous egotist gets elected for a 2nd Term!
"Meanwhile, you’re coming of age in a 24/7 media environment that bombards us with all kinds of content and exposes us to all kinds of arguments, some of which don’t rank all that high on the truth meter. With iPods and iPads; Xboxes and PlayStations; information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment. All of this is not only putting new pressures on you; it is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy."
Like his "spontaneous reply to Joe the Plumber" regarding the Distribution of Wealth, this is further indication of "Our Dear Leader's" political philosophy - Marxism. Pretty soon he will issue a list of "approved reading material" and appoint a Cszar to oversee production of non approved material.
I can't imagine what will happen if this duplicitous egotist gets elected for a 2nd Term!
Friday, May 7, 2010
HB 1388 PASSED
US to Fund moving Hamas Refugees to US!
You spent $20,000,000 to move members/supporters of Hamas, a terrorist organization, to the United States ; housing, food, the whole enchilada.
Whether you are an Obama fan, or not, EVERYONE IN THE U.S. needs to know....
Something happened... H.R. 1388 was passed, behind our backs. You may want to read about it... It wasn ' t mentioned on the news... just went by on the ticker tape at the bottom of the CNN screen.
Obama funds $20M in tax payer dollars to immigrate Hamas Refugees to the USA . This is the news that didn't make the headlines...
By executive order in January 2009, President Barack Obama ordered the expenditure of $20.3 million in "migration assistance" to the Palestinian refugees and "conflict victims" in Gaza .
The "presidential determination," which allows hundreds of thousands of Palestinians with ties to Hamas to resettle in theUnited States , was signed and appears in the Federal Register.
Few on Capitol Hill, or in the media, took note that the order provides a free ticket replete with housing and food allowances to individuals who have displayed their overwhelming support to the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the parliamentary election of January 2006.
Now we learn that he is allowing thousands of Palestinian refuges to move to, and live in, the US at American taxpayer expense.
These important, and insightful, issues are being "lost" in the blinding bail-outs and "stimulation" packages.
To verify this for yourself: http://www.thefederalregister.com/d.p/2009-02-04-E9-2488
Cinco de Mayo - Statement
On May 5th 2010, Obama criticized the Arizona Immigration Law and said that his Administration (AKA Big Brother) would be watching them carefully. He then went on to say that he would work to grant Amnesty to Illegal Immigrants.
Can Obama and Napolitano Spell "Homeland Security"?
So, while the Nation is gritting it's teeth about the growing financial crisis and the critical situation with high unemployment. And others are wondering why Janet Napolitano stopped work on the Border Fence, Barry marches on, offering our country to terrorists and people who came here illegally.
Edmund Burke
"All that is necessary for the triumph of Evil is for good men to do nothing".
Are you staying up on the current issues? Are you prepared to help Candidates who support your positions (yard signs, mailings etc.) If not you - then who is going to get the good ones elected?
US to Fund moving Hamas Refugees to US!
You spent $20,000,000 to move members/supporters of Hamas, a terrorist organization, to the United States ; housing, food, the whole enchilada.
Whether you are an Obama fan, or not, EVERYONE IN THE U.S. needs to know....
Something happened... H.R. 1388 was passed, behind our backs. You may want to read about it... It wasn ' t mentioned on the news... just went by on the ticker tape at the bottom of the CNN screen.
Obama funds $20M in tax payer dollars to immigrate Hamas Refugees to the USA . This is the news that didn't make the headlines...
By executive order in January 2009, President Barack Obama ordered the expenditure of $20.3 million in "migration assistance" to the Palestinian refugees and "conflict victims" in Gaza .
The "presidential determination," which allows hundreds of thousands of Palestinians with ties to Hamas to resettle in theUnited States , was signed and appears in the Federal Register.
Few on Capitol Hill, or in the media, took note that the order provides a free ticket replete with housing and food allowances to individuals who have displayed their overwhelming support to the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the parliamentary election of January 2006.
Now we learn that he is allowing thousands of Palestinian refuges to move to, and live in, the US at American taxpayer expense.
These important, and insightful, issues are being "lost" in the blinding bail-outs and "stimulation" packages.
To verify this for yourself: http://www.thefederalregister.com/d.p/2009-02-04-E9-2488
Cinco de Mayo - Statement
On May 5th 2010, Obama criticized the Arizona Immigration Law and said that his Administration (AKA Big Brother) would be watching them carefully. He then went on to say that he would work to grant Amnesty to Illegal Immigrants.
Can Obama and Napolitano Spell "Homeland Security"?
So, while the Nation is gritting it's teeth about the growing financial crisis and the critical situation with high unemployment. And others are wondering why Janet Napolitano stopped work on the Border Fence, Barry marches on, offering our country to terrorists and people who came here illegally.
Edmund Burke
"All that is necessary for the triumph of Evil is for good men to do nothing".
Are you staying up on the current issues? Are you prepared to help Candidates who support your positions (yard signs, mailings etc.) If not you - then who is going to get the good ones elected?
Don't Tread on Me!
Obama Statement/Promises Expiration Date
Obama has made so many promises to just about every special interest group that the sheer quantity and complexity and disingenuity of them renders most of them IMPOSSIBLE to implement as promised. But then he weasels out using phrases like "If you examine what I've said all along", or "Make no Mistake" or "I've said time and time again". A couple of misleading promises is always forgiven but the list of Barry's missed commitments and disingenuous statements is Political Chicanery being practiced by and expert.
"Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, "IT Costs Nothing".
Edmund Burke
Following is a list of his Promises that have missed their expiration date. Many of them were missed before the Campaign was over.
I enter this here as a reference since we may refer to them in future posts. This came to me via the Internet somehow and unfortunately I'm not sure of the Author.
Monday, March 29, 2010
BARACK OBAMA
A Long Post: The Complete List of Obama Statement Expiration Dates
By popular demand, a comprehensive list of expired Obama statements...
HEALTH CARE MANDATES
STATEMENT: “We've got a philosophical difference, which we've debated repeatedly, and that is that Senator Clinton believes the only way to achieve universal health care is to force everybody to purchase it. And my belief is, the reason that people don't have it is not because they don't want it but because they can't afford it.” Barack Obama, speaking at a Democratic presidential debate, February 21, 2008.
EXPIRATION DATE: On March 23, 2010, Obama signed the individual mandate into law.
HEALTH CARE NEGOTIATIONS ON C-SPAN
STATEMENT: “These negotiations will be on C-SPAN, and so the public will be part of the conversation and will see the decisions that are being made.” January 20, 2008, and seven other times.
EXPIRATION DATE: Throughout the summer, fall, and winter of 2009 and 2010; when John McCain asked about it during the health care summit February 26, Obama dismissed the issue by declaring, “the campaign is over, John.”
RAISING TAXES
STATEMENT: “No family making less than $250,000 will see any form of tax increase.” (multiple times on the campaign trail)
EXPIRATION DATE: Broken multiple times, including the raised taxes on tobacco, a new tax on indoor tanning salons, but most prominently on February 11, 2010: “President Barack Obama said he is “agnostic” about raising taxes on households making less than $250,000 as part of a broad effort to rein in the budget deficit.”
RECESS APPOINTMENTS
STATEMENT: Then-Senator Obama declared that a recess appointment is “damaged goods” and has “less credibility” than a normal appointment. August 25, 2005.
EXPIRATION DATE: March 27, 2010: “If, in the interest of scoring political points, Republicans in the Senate refuse to exercise that responsibility, I must act in the interest of the American people and exercise my authority to fill these positions on an interim basis.”
BORDER SECURITY
STATEMENT: “We need tougher border security, and a renewed focus on busting up gangs and traffickers crossing our border. . . . That begins at home, with comprehensive immigration reform. That means securing our border and passing tough employer enforcement laws.” then-candidate Obama, discussing the need for border security, speaking in Miami on May 23, 2008:
EXPIRATION DATE: March 17, 2010: The Obama administration halted new work on a "virtual fence" on the U.S.-Mexican border, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Tuesday, diverting $50 million in planned economic stimulus funds for the project to other purposes.
GUANTANAMO BAY
STATEMENT: Executive Order stating, "The detention facilities at Guantánamo for individuals covered by this order shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than one year from the date of this order." January 22, 2009.
EXPIRATION DATE: November 19, 2009: "Guantánamo, we had a specific deadline that was missed."
MILITARY TRIBUNALS
STATEMENT: “Somebody like Khalid Sheik Mohammad is gonna get basically, a full military trial with all the bells and whistles.” September 27, 2006
EXPIRATION DATE: Ongoing. “President Obama is planning to insert himself into the debate about where to try the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, three administration officials said Thursday, signaling a recognition that the administration had mishandled the process and triggered a political backlash. Obama initially had asked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to choose the site of the trial in an effort to maintain an independent Justice Department. But the White House has been taken aback by the intense criticism from political opponents and local officials of Holder's decision to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed in a civilian courtroom in New York.”
RECOVERY.GOV
STATEMENT: “We will launch a sweeping effort to root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government, and every American will be able to see how and where we spend taxpayer dollars by going to a new website called recovery.gov.” – President Obama, January 28, 2009
EXPIRATION DATE: “More than two months after some of the funds were released, [Recovery.gov] offers little detail on where the money is going… The government [spent] $84 million on a website that doesn't have a search function, when its purpose is to ‘root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government.’” April 2, 2009
Eighteen from his first 100 days:
1. "As President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide."
2. "I will make sure that we renegotiate [NAFTA]."
3. Opposed a Colombian Free Trade Agreement because advocates ignore that "labor leaders have been targeted for assassination on a fairly consistent basis."
4. "Now, what I’ve done throughout this campaign is to propose a net spending cut."
5. "If we see money being misspent, we're going to put a stop to it, and we will call it out and we will publicize it."
6. "Yesterday, Jim, the head of Caterpillar, said that if Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off."
7. "I want to go line by line through every item in the Federal budget and eliminate programs that don't work, and make sure that those that do work work better and cheaper."
8. "[My plan] will not help speculators who took risky bets on a rising market and bought homes not to live in but to sell."
9. "Instead of allowing lobbyists to slip big corporate tax breaks into bills during the dead of night, we will make sure every single tax break and earmark is available to every American online."
10. "We can no longer accept a process that doles out earmarks based on a member of Congress's seniority, rather than the merit of the project."
11. "If your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime."
12. "Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe the United States has to be frank with the Chinese about such failings and will press them to respect human rights."
13. "We must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights."
14. "Lobbyists won’t work in my White House!"
15. "The real gamble in this election is playing the same Washington game with the same Washington players and expecting a different result."
16. "I'll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we'll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills."
17. "Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days." Obama is 1-for-11 on this promise so far.
18. A special one on the 100th day, "the first thing I'd do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That's the first thing I'd do."
And a list from of promises that expired during the campaign:
Monday, November 03, 2008
IRAQ
STATEMENT: “Based on the conversations we’ve had internally as well as external reports, we believe that you can get one to two brigades out a month. At that pace, the forces would be out in approximately 16 months from the time that we began. That would be the time frame that I would be setting up,” Obama to the New York Times, November 1, 2007
EXPIRATION DATE: March 7, 2008: Obama foreign policy adviser Samantha Power, to the BBC: “You can’t make a commitment in whatever month we’re in now, in March of 2008 about what circumstances are gonna be like in Jan. 2009. We can’t even tell what Bush is up to in terms of troop pauses and so forth. He will of course not rely upon some plan that he’s crafted as a presidential candidate or as a US senator.”
Also: July 3, 2008: "My 16-month timeline, if you examine everything I've said, was always premised on making sure our troops were safe," Obama told reporters as his campaign plane landed in North Dakota. "And my guiding approach continues to be that we've got to make sure that our troops are safe, and that Iraq is stable. And I'm going to continue to gather information to find out whether those conditions still hold."
STATEMENT: On June 14, Obama foreign policy adviser Susan Rice called the RNC’s argument that Obama needed to go to Iraq to get a firsthand look "complete garbage."
EXPIRATION DATE: On June 16, Obama announced he would go to Iraq and Afghanistan “so he can see first hand the progress of the wars he would inherit if he's elected president.”
DEBATES
STATEMENT: May 16, 2008: "If John McCain wants to meet me, anywhere, anytime to have a debate about our respective policies in Iraq, Iran, the Middle East or around the world that is a conversation I’m happy to have."
EXPIRATION DATE: June 13, 2008: Obama campaign manager David Plouffe: “Barack Obama offered to meet John McCain at five joint appearances between now and Election Day—the three traditional debates plus a joint town hall on the economy in July [on the Fourth of July] and an in-depth debate on foreign policy in August.”
IRAN
STATEMENT: “We can, then, more effectively deal with what I consider to be one of the greatest threats to the United States, to Israel, and world peace, and that is Iran,” Obama speaking to American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Chicago, March 5, 2007
EXPIRATION DATE: “Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, these countries are tiny...They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us.” – May 20, 2008
STATEMENT: Question at the YouTube debate, as the video depicted leaders of the countries, including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: "Would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea?....."
"I would," Obama answered. July 27, 2007
EXPIRATION DATE: May 10, 2008: Susan E. Rice, a former State Department and National Security Council official who is a foreign policy adviser to the Democratic candidate: “But nobody said he would initiate contacts at the presidential level; that requires due preparation and advance work.”
JEREMIAH WRIGHT/TRINITY UNITED
STATEMENT: "I could no more disown Jeremiah Wright than I could disown my own grandmother."
—Barack Obama, March 18, 2008
EXPIRATION DATE: on April 28, 2008, cut all ties to Wright, declaring, “based on his remarks yesterday, well, I may not know him as well as I thought.”
STATEMENT: Obama said that his church, “Trinity United "embodies the black community in its entirety" and that his church was being caricatured on March 18, 2008.
EXPIRATION DATE: On May 31, 2008, Obama resigned his membership at Trinity United Church.
JIM JOHNSON
STATEMENT: Criticism of running mate vetter Jim Johnson loan from Countrywide was "a game" and that his vice-presidential vetting team “aren’t folks who are working for me.” June 10, 2008
EXPIRATION DATE: June 11, 2008, when Obama accepted Johnson's resignation.
FISA
STATEMENT: Obama spokesman Bill Burton on October 24, 2007: “To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies.”
EXPIRATION DATE: June 20, 2008: “Given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as president, I will carefully monitor the program.”
NUCLEAR ENERGY
STATEMENT: “I am not a nuclear energy proponent.” Barack Obama, December 30, 2007
EXPIRATION DATE: The above statement actually was the expiration date for his previous position, “I actually think we should explore nuclear power as part of the energy mix,” expressed on July 23, 2007; the above statement expired when he told Democratic governors he thought it is “worth investigating its further development” on June 20, 2008.
NAFTA
STATEMENT: Tim Russert:: Senator Obama . . . Simple question: Will you, as president, say to Canada and Mexico, "This has not worked for us; we are out"?
Obama: “I will make sure that we renegotiate, in the same way that Senator Clinton talked about. And I think actually Senator Clinton's answer on this one is right. I think we should use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage to ensure that we actually get labor and environmental standards that are enforced. And that is not what has been happening so far.” February 23, 2008
EXPIRATION DATE: June 18, 2008, Fortune magazine: “Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified,” he conceded, after I reminded him that he had called NAFTA "devastating" and "a big mistake," despite nonpartisan studies concluding that the trade zone has had a mild, positive effect on the U.S. economy.
Does that mean his rhetoric was overheated and amplified? "Politicians are always guilty of that, and I don't exempt myself," he answered.
"I'm not a big believer in doing things unilaterally," Obama said. "I'm a big believer in opening up a dialogue and figuring out how we can make this work for all people."
PUBLIC FINANCING
STATEMENT: “If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.” Also, a Common Cause questionnaire dated November 27, 2007, asked “If you are nominated for President in 2008 and your major opponents agree to forgo private funding in the general election campaign, will you participate in the presidential public financing system?”, Obama checked, “Yes.”
EXPIRATION DATE: June 19, 2008: Obama announced he would not participate in the presidential public financing system.
WORKING OUT A DEAL ON PUBLIC FINANCING
STATEMENT: “What I’ve said is, at the point where I'm the nominee, at the point where it's appropriate, I will sit down with John McCain and make sure that we have a system that works for everybody.”Obama to Tim Russert, February 27.
EXPIRATION DATE: When Obama announced his decision to break his public financing pledge June 19, no meeting between the Democratic nominee and McCain had occurred.
WELFARE REFORM
STATEMENT: “I probably would not have supported the federal legislation [to overhaul welfare], because I think it had some problems." Obama on the floor of the Illinois Senate, May 31, 1997
EXPIRATION DATE: April 11, 2008: Asked if he would have vetoed the 1996 law, Mr. Obama said, “I won’t second guess President Clinton for signing” it. Obama to the New York Times.
GAY MARRIAGE
STATEMENT: "Barack Obama has always believed that same-sex couples should enjoy equal rights under the law, and he will continue to fight for civil unions as president. He respects the decision of the California Supreme Court, and continues to believe that states should make their own decisions when it comes to the issue of marriage.” – campaign spokesman, May 5, 2008
EXPIRATION DATE: June 29, 2008: “I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution, and similar efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution or those of other states… Finally, I want to congratulate all of you who have shown your love for each other by getting married these last few weeks.” — letter to the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club
PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTION
STATEMENT: "Now, I don't think that 'mental distress' qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term." – Interview with Relevant magazine, July 1, 2008
EXPIRATION DATE: July 5, 2008: “My only point is that in an area like partial-birth abortion having a mental, having a health exception can be defined rigorously. It can be defined through physical health, It can be defined by serious clinical mental-health diseases.” statement to reporters.
DIVISION OF JERUSALEM
STATEMENT: "Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided." — speech before AIPAC, June 4, 2008
EXPIRATION DATE: June 6, 2008: "Jerusalem is a final status issue, which means it has to be negotiated between the two parties" as part of "an agreement that they both can live with." – an Obama adviser clarifying his remarks to the Jerusalem Post.
"Hypocrisy can afford to be magnificent in its promises, for never intending to go beyond promise, "IT Costs Nothing".
Edmund Burke
Following is a list of his Promises that have missed their expiration date. Many of them were missed before the Campaign was over.
I enter this here as a reference since we may refer to them in future posts. This came to me via the Internet somehow and unfortunately I'm not sure of the Author.
Monday, March 29, 2010
BARACK OBAMA
A Long Post: The Complete List of Obama Statement Expiration Dates
By popular demand, a comprehensive list of expired Obama statements...
HEALTH CARE MANDATES
STATEMENT: “We've got a philosophical difference, which we've debated repeatedly, and that is that Senator Clinton believes the only way to achieve universal health care is to force everybody to purchase it. And my belief is, the reason that people don't have it is not because they don't want it but because they can't afford it.” Barack Obama, speaking at a Democratic presidential debate, February 21, 2008.
EXPIRATION DATE: On March 23, 2010, Obama signed the individual mandate into law.
HEALTH CARE NEGOTIATIONS ON C-SPAN
STATEMENT: “These negotiations will be on C-SPAN, and so the public will be part of the conversation and will see the decisions that are being made.” January 20, 2008, and seven other times.
EXPIRATION DATE: Throughout the summer, fall, and winter of 2009 and 2010; when John McCain asked about it during the health care summit February 26, Obama dismissed the issue by declaring, “the campaign is over, John.”
RAISING TAXES
STATEMENT: “No family making less than $250,000 will see any form of tax increase.” (multiple times on the campaign trail)
EXPIRATION DATE: Broken multiple times, including the raised taxes on tobacco, a new tax on indoor tanning salons, but most prominently on February 11, 2010: “President Barack Obama said he is “agnostic” about raising taxes on households making less than $250,000 as part of a broad effort to rein in the budget deficit.”
RECESS APPOINTMENTS
STATEMENT: Then-Senator Obama declared that a recess appointment is “damaged goods” and has “less credibility” than a normal appointment. August 25, 2005.
EXPIRATION DATE: March 27, 2010: “If, in the interest of scoring political points, Republicans in the Senate refuse to exercise that responsibility, I must act in the interest of the American people and exercise my authority to fill these positions on an interim basis.”
BORDER SECURITY
STATEMENT: “We need tougher border security, and a renewed focus on busting up gangs and traffickers crossing our border. . . . That begins at home, with comprehensive immigration reform. That means securing our border and passing tough employer enforcement laws.” then-candidate Obama, discussing the need for border security, speaking in Miami on May 23, 2008:
EXPIRATION DATE: March 17, 2010: The Obama administration halted new work on a "virtual fence" on the U.S.-Mexican border, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced Tuesday, diverting $50 million in planned economic stimulus funds for the project to other purposes.
GUANTANAMO BAY
STATEMENT: Executive Order stating, "The detention facilities at Guantánamo for individuals covered by this order shall be closed as soon as practicable, and no later than one year from the date of this order." January 22, 2009.
EXPIRATION DATE: November 19, 2009: "Guantánamo, we had a specific deadline that was missed."
MILITARY TRIBUNALS
STATEMENT: “Somebody like Khalid Sheik Mohammad is gonna get basically, a full military trial with all the bells and whistles.” September 27, 2006
EXPIRATION DATE: Ongoing. “President Obama is planning to insert himself into the debate about where to try the accused mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, three administration officials said Thursday, signaling a recognition that the administration had mishandled the process and triggered a political backlash. Obama initially had asked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to choose the site of the trial in an effort to maintain an independent Justice Department. But the White House has been taken aback by the intense criticism from political opponents and local officials of Holder's decision to try Khalid Sheik Mohammed in a civilian courtroom in New York.”
RECOVERY.GOV
STATEMENT: “We will launch a sweeping effort to root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government, and every American will be able to see how and where we spend taxpayer dollars by going to a new website called recovery.gov.” – President Obama, January 28, 2009
EXPIRATION DATE: “More than two months after some of the funds were released, [Recovery.gov] offers little detail on where the money is going… The government [spent] $84 million on a website that doesn't have a search function, when its purpose is to ‘root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government.’” April 2, 2009
Eighteen from his first 100 days:
1. "As President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide."
2. "I will make sure that we renegotiate [NAFTA]."
3. Opposed a Colombian Free Trade Agreement because advocates ignore that "labor leaders have been targeted for assassination on a fairly consistent basis."
4. "Now, what I’ve done throughout this campaign is to propose a net spending cut."
5. "If we see money being misspent, we're going to put a stop to it, and we will call it out and we will publicize it."
6. "Yesterday, Jim, the head of Caterpillar, said that if Congress passes our plan, this company will be able to rehire some of the folks who were just laid off."
7. "I want to go line by line through every item in the Federal budget and eliminate programs that don't work, and make sure that those that do work work better and cheaper."
8. "[My plan] will not help speculators who took risky bets on a rising market and bought homes not to live in but to sell."
9. "Instead of allowing lobbyists to slip big corporate tax breaks into bills during the dead of night, we will make sure every single tax break and earmark is available to every American online."
10. "We can no longer accept a process that doles out earmarks based on a member of Congress's seniority, rather than the merit of the project."
11. "If your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime."
12. "Barack Obama and Joe Biden believe the United States has to be frank with the Chinese about such failings and will press them to respect human rights."
13. "We must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights."
14. "Lobbyists won’t work in my White House!"
15. "The real gamble in this election is playing the same Washington game with the same Washington players and expecting a different result."
16. "I'll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we'll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills."
17. "Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days." Obama is 1-for-11 on this promise so far.
18. A special one on the 100th day, "the first thing I'd do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act. That's the first thing I'd do."
And a list from of promises that expired during the campaign:
Monday, November 03, 2008
IRAQ
STATEMENT: “Based on the conversations we’ve had internally as well as external reports, we believe that you can get one to two brigades out a month. At that pace, the forces would be out in approximately 16 months from the time that we began. That would be the time frame that I would be setting up,” Obama to the New York Times, November 1, 2007
EXPIRATION DATE: March 7, 2008: Obama foreign policy adviser Samantha Power, to the BBC: “You can’t make a commitment in whatever month we’re in now, in March of 2008 about what circumstances are gonna be like in Jan. 2009. We can’t even tell what Bush is up to in terms of troop pauses and so forth. He will of course not rely upon some plan that he’s crafted as a presidential candidate or as a US senator.”
Also: July 3, 2008: "My 16-month timeline, if you examine everything I've said, was always premised on making sure our troops were safe," Obama told reporters as his campaign plane landed in North Dakota. "And my guiding approach continues to be that we've got to make sure that our troops are safe, and that Iraq is stable. And I'm going to continue to gather information to find out whether those conditions still hold."
STATEMENT: On June 14, Obama foreign policy adviser Susan Rice called the RNC’s argument that Obama needed to go to Iraq to get a firsthand look "complete garbage."
EXPIRATION DATE: On June 16, Obama announced he would go to Iraq and Afghanistan “so he can see first hand the progress of the wars he would inherit if he's elected president.”
DEBATES
STATEMENT: May 16, 2008: "If John McCain wants to meet me, anywhere, anytime to have a debate about our respective policies in Iraq, Iran, the Middle East or around the world that is a conversation I’m happy to have."
EXPIRATION DATE: June 13, 2008: Obama campaign manager David Plouffe: “Barack Obama offered to meet John McCain at five joint appearances between now and Election Day—the three traditional debates plus a joint town hall on the economy in July [on the Fourth of July] and an in-depth debate on foreign policy in August.”
IRAN
STATEMENT: “We can, then, more effectively deal with what I consider to be one of the greatest threats to the United States, to Israel, and world peace, and that is Iran,” Obama speaking to American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Chicago, March 5, 2007
EXPIRATION DATE: “Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, these countries are tiny...They don’t pose a serious threat to us the way the Soviet Union posed a threat to us.” – May 20, 2008
STATEMENT: Question at the YouTube debate, as the video depicted leaders of the countries, including Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: "Would you be willing to meet separately, without precondition, during the first year of your administration, in Washington or anywhere else, with the leaders of Iran, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba and North Korea?....."
"I would," Obama answered. July 27, 2007
EXPIRATION DATE: May 10, 2008: Susan E. Rice, a former State Department and National Security Council official who is a foreign policy adviser to the Democratic candidate: “But nobody said he would initiate contacts at the presidential level; that requires due preparation and advance work.”
JEREMIAH WRIGHT/TRINITY UNITED
STATEMENT: "I could no more disown Jeremiah Wright than I could disown my own grandmother."
—Barack Obama, March 18, 2008
EXPIRATION DATE: on April 28, 2008, cut all ties to Wright, declaring, “based on his remarks yesterday, well, I may not know him as well as I thought.”
STATEMENT: Obama said that his church, “Trinity United "embodies the black community in its entirety" and that his church was being caricatured on March 18, 2008.
EXPIRATION DATE: On May 31, 2008, Obama resigned his membership at Trinity United Church.
JIM JOHNSON
STATEMENT: Criticism of running mate vetter Jim Johnson loan from Countrywide was "a game" and that his vice-presidential vetting team “aren’t folks who are working for me.” June 10, 2008
EXPIRATION DATE: June 11, 2008, when Obama accepted Johnson's resignation.
FISA
STATEMENT: Obama spokesman Bill Burton on October 24, 2007: “To be clear: Barack will support a filibuster of any bill that includes retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies.”
EXPIRATION DATE: June 20, 2008: “Given the legitimate threats we face, providing effective intelligence collection tools with appropriate safeguards is too important to delay. So I support the compromise, but do so with a firm pledge that as president, I will carefully monitor the program.”
NUCLEAR ENERGY
STATEMENT: “I am not a nuclear energy proponent.” Barack Obama, December 30, 2007
EXPIRATION DATE: The above statement actually was the expiration date for his previous position, “I actually think we should explore nuclear power as part of the energy mix,” expressed on July 23, 2007; the above statement expired when he told Democratic governors he thought it is “worth investigating its further development” on June 20, 2008.
NAFTA
STATEMENT: Tim Russert:: Senator Obama . . . Simple question: Will you, as president, say to Canada and Mexico, "This has not worked for us; we are out"?
Obama: “I will make sure that we renegotiate, in the same way that Senator Clinton talked about. And I think actually Senator Clinton's answer on this one is right. I think we should use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage to ensure that we actually get labor and environmental standards that are enforced. And that is not what has been happening so far.” February 23, 2008
EXPIRATION DATE: June 18, 2008, Fortune magazine: “Sometimes during campaigns the rhetoric gets overheated and amplified,” he conceded, after I reminded him that he had called NAFTA "devastating" and "a big mistake," despite nonpartisan studies concluding that the trade zone has had a mild, positive effect on the U.S. economy.
Does that mean his rhetoric was overheated and amplified? "Politicians are always guilty of that, and I don't exempt myself," he answered.
"I'm not a big believer in doing things unilaterally," Obama said. "I'm a big believer in opening up a dialogue and figuring out how we can make this work for all people."
PUBLIC FINANCING
STATEMENT: “If I am the Democratic nominee, I will aggressively pursue an agreement with the Republican nominee to preserve a publicly financed general election.” Also, a Common Cause questionnaire dated November 27, 2007, asked “If you are nominated for President in 2008 and your major opponents agree to forgo private funding in the general election campaign, will you participate in the presidential public financing system?”, Obama checked, “Yes.”
EXPIRATION DATE: June 19, 2008: Obama announced he would not participate in the presidential public financing system.
WORKING OUT A DEAL ON PUBLIC FINANCING
STATEMENT: “What I’ve said is, at the point where I'm the nominee, at the point where it's appropriate, I will sit down with John McCain and make sure that we have a system that works for everybody.”Obama to Tim Russert, February 27.
EXPIRATION DATE: When Obama announced his decision to break his public financing pledge June 19, no meeting between the Democratic nominee and McCain had occurred.
WELFARE REFORM
STATEMENT: “I probably would not have supported the federal legislation [to overhaul welfare], because I think it had some problems." Obama on the floor of the Illinois Senate, May 31, 1997
EXPIRATION DATE: April 11, 2008: Asked if he would have vetoed the 1996 law, Mr. Obama said, “I won’t second guess President Clinton for signing” it. Obama to the New York Times.
GAY MARRIAGE
STATEMENT: "Barack Obama has always believed that same-sex couples should enjoy equal rights under the law, and he will continue to fight for civil unions as president. He respects the decision of the California Supreme Court, and continues to believe that states should make their own decisions when it comes to the issue of marriage.” – campaign spokesman, May 5, 2008
EXPIRATION DATE: June 29, 2008: “I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution, and similar efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution or those of other states… Finally, I want to congratulate all of you who have shown your love for each other by getting married these last few weeks.” — letter to the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club
PARTIAL-BIRTH ABORTION
STATEMENT: "Now, I don't think that 'mental distress' qualifies as the health of the mother. I think it has to be a serious physical issue that arises in pregnancy, where there are real, significant problems to the mother carrying that child to term." – Interview with Relevant magazine, July 1, 2008
EXPIRATION DATE: July 5, 2008: “My only point is that in an area like partial-birth abortion having a mental, having a health exception can be defined rigorously. It can be defined through physical health, It can be defined by serious clinical mental-health diseases.” statement to reporters.
DIVISION OF JERUSALEM
STATEMENT: "Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided." — speech before AIPAC, June 4, 2008
EXPIRATION DATE: June 6, 2008: "Jerusalem is a final status issue, which means it has to be negotiated between the two parties" as part of "an agreement that they both can live with." – an Obama adviser clarifying his remarks to the Jerusalem Post.
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