President Obama's State of the Union Address - The Egg McMuffin of Speeches

The political stump is where you can hear the real, unadulterated words of President Obama. You hear sound bites of them every day in the news. In the speeches that he gives when traveling the country while fundraising or pushing a particular issue, the president uses Republican bashing, wealth bashing, petulant, blame-everyone-but-himself, fudge-the-numbers, fudge-the-reality language and comes across as little more than a left-wing ideologue.

And then there's last night's State of the Union address. In the televised address to both houses of Congress, President Obama came across as someone who might be willing to cross the aisle to work with the other political party. He and his speechwriters tried to sound more moderate, more reasonable, and more pliable. He spoke well of America and its flag, he spoke well of the military and their successes against bin Laden and in Afghanistan and Iraq. He spoke of liberty and tyranny (!) and of intolerance for Iran's nuclear ambitions. He also spoke almost conservatively when speaking of unfair trade and piracy from countries like China.


Appreciative and appreciated words.

But the president and his speechwriters are liberals and a liberal message can't help but pervade even this attempt at an aisle-crossing speech. He went on to say in the State of the Union address that our relationship with Israel is stronger. It is clearly not. His actions have distanced us from Israel and increased the threat against them from multiple enemies in the region. Egypt, Libya, the Palestinians, Hamas, Syria, Turkey, and Iran are all greater threats to Israel than ever. He said our ties with Europe and Asia are stronger. They are not. He said our ties with South and Central America are stronger. This is true, if the government is left-leaning, or socialist. It is not true of more democratic, or conservative states like Honduras or Colombia.

He said in his speech that our military will be stronger in the years to come, but 500 billion dollars in cuts, a smaller fighting force, and the smallest navy since 1947 counter this statement. All of this in the face of increasing threats around the world. Everything Barack Obama has done since entering office has been aimed at reducing the military's strength (not too mention increasing the size of the budget, and the debt).

In his State of the Union speech, the president (a Democrat) said that he believes what Republican Abraham Lincoln believed: That government should do for the people only what they cannot do better by themselves, and no more. However, his actions for the last three years show just the opposite. He wants government doing any and every thing that people could do better for themselves.

This president once again called for immigration reform so that illegal immigrants can enjoy the benefits of American citizens and not have the worry of being deported hanging over their heads. :`-( I ask again, what kind of country do we live in where our leader wants to sanction the illegal actions of millions of people? Against the will of the majority.

The 44th president also called (yet again) for a tax increase on millionaires. Nothing new there. He and his speech writers know what works with his base, I guess.

He continued on to say that he wants to develop more energy in the U.S. from all sources of energy and even suggested opening up more public lands to drilling. This would be great if it were true, but he has turned down the Keystone XL Pipeline from Canada which would have greatly helped reduce oil imports from the Middle East and has continuously been a thorn in the sides of oil companies that want to drill in the Gulf of Mexico or off the coasts. And despite his failed backing of solar energy company, Solyndra, he wants to double down on that type of investment.

My suggestion to those who listened to President Obama's 2012 State of the Union address (hopefully his last)--Forget everything you've heard, because it's the stump speeches where the truth (and more lies) comes out to play. As Rush Limbaugh likes to say, this is nothing more than a State of the Union Show.

Get a free download of State of the Union addresses. State of the Union Address (1790-2001)


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Don't Be Shy If You Want to Fly

John Tyner, to my mind, is a hero defending liberty and decency. He is the young man who refused to be screened by TSA airport scanners which can peer through clothes at someone’s naked body. Then after hearing how he would be felt-up and groped by the “enhanced pat-down” instead, he refused to do that also, saying famously “But if you touch my junk, I’m gonna have you arrested.” After long discussions with TSA officials, he then was escorted from the airport because they wouldn’t allow him to board his flight without the personal intrusion first. (Video of encounter)

And for his refusal to submit to these invasions he is now threatened with an investigation and a $11,000 fine! You must be kidding. For what? Did he break a law? Hey Ms. Napolitano, how about a moratorium on enhanced stupidity? And I hear you’re considering a waver for Muslim women. WHAAAAT?? Good idea. Pretty much the ONLY female suicide bombers that have ever existed have been Islamic extremist women. That would sort of leave a gaping hole in airline safety if you ask me. How about we exempt everyone from personally intrusive searches, unless through investigatory means we find them to be suspicious or to fit an FBI-style profile of a potential bad guy? Let’s look at how a country successful at counter-terrorism does it, ie., Israel. They are more targeted in their screening process, and have been pretty successful in keeping bombers off of their airplanes. Or how about using more bomb-sniffing dogs?

I think we are going to see a lot of bipartisan furor over this policy in the coming days and rightly so. A consumer protest has been suggested for next Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving where people will refuse the scan, opting for the “enhanced patdown” which will have the effect of slowing down passenger screening and gumming up an already slow travel day. Something needs to be done, but accepting the patdown is accepting the equal of two bad equals. Everyone who flies on that day should refuse both screening techniques. If 2,000,000 travelers did that, no planes would fly. Would Janet Napolitano and the TSA be happy then? We the citizen need to be heard again. These are outrageous policies which need to be replaced .

"Those who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin

With Friends Like Russia

Hey Vladimir Putin and Dmitri Medvedev! Does Russia want to be friends with the United States or make things difficult for the U.S. and the rest of the world?  Seems like you want to be difficult to me. Because your consistently cozy actions with Iran are not the actions of a friend. Especially now. (I mean come on, let's have a Super Soaker shootout and leave all the animosity in the past.)

What would you say about us if we were pals with separatists in Chechnya and supplied them with missile systems or nuclear technology?

Iran has stated that it wants to destroy Israel. And you want to continue to give them tools that will make it easier to do so? Iran also trains and supplies insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan. Insurgents that kill civilians and troops from many countries. Do you want to enable and buttress this kind of activity? Apparently you do. Normal relations with a terrorist state is tantamount to tacit approval of their policies.

Maybe supplying long-range surface-to-air S-300 missiles to Iran, a country that is openly hostile to the U.S. and the west in general is a bad idea. Maybe helping them with their nuclear program when everyone in the world is worried about their intentions is a bad idea. Doing that and some of the other things you do leave us normal, everyday citizens of this country with the impression that you would rather help our enemies than us. It leaves us with the impression that you are indeed on the side of our enemies. Why? What's up with that? Power politics? You can be a powerful nation without propping up terrorist regimes. Why do you want to help the whack-job President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Islamist Ayatollahs?

Sanctions are going to be ineffectual, of course, if you and China and Turkey and Brazil and Indonesia and others ignore the sanctions or are selective in implementing them. And the fact that you need an exception to the sanctions on Iran with a dangerous new weapons system is exactly the wrong kind of breach of sanctions the sane world would hope for. Weapons that could result in harm to Israel, U.S. and NATO soldiers, Iraqi and Afghan citizens.

How about you start acting more like a friend and less like an old enemy and maybe we'd feel less like we need to protect ourselves from you.

Happy 170th birthday to Peter IIyich Tchaikovsky.

Middle East on the Verge of Disaster in the Wake of Flotillas

Four Kassam rockets have landed in Israel setting off warning sirens days after Israel's Defense Forces boarded a ship which was attempting to break Israel's blockade intended to stop weapons from getting to the Gaza strip and the militant Hamas and Islamic Jihad. No one was injured in the recent rocket attacks, according to the Jerusalem Post.

But more rockets! This is exactly why Israel instituted a blockade, and why they should continue to enforce it. Because they don't want  Jew-hating Jihadists shooting rockets into their cities.

Prime Minister Netenyahu said that "the boat was no Love Boat", and even if it were a Love Boat it should and would have been stopped. Except that no one would have been hurt or killed on either side in that case.

Still the flotillas keep coming, testing Israel's resolve and today Iran is even offering to provide military escort to the flotillas, a move that could start a war between Iran and Israel.

Turkey's Prime Minister is doing a lot of huffing and puffing about Israel, and calling for UN investigations, when it is Turkey that should be investigated for its role in assisting the breaking of a legal naval blockade of another state.

President Obama and secretary of state Clinton should show some support (i.e., political backbone) of Israel instead of always throwing the besieged state under the bus. Middle East peace is on the precipice right now and one poorly placed foot is going to result in an ugly regional war.