freetheelephant2012.com

Its O.K., buddy! You can hang with me on the 4th

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try to plan a party something always comes up to ruin it. This is why I do not throw parties. The money, the mess, the hassle trying to ‘please’ your guests, the violence against peaceful protests….It is just a pain.
Anyway, as I have posted before:

http://freetheelephant2012.com/?p=458

The thought was to open U.S. embassy’s around the world to Iranian guests and share in the July 4th festivities. I thought it was stupid and evidently it took the actions in the last two weeks demonstrated by the Iranian government to finally convince Obama that the idea was eh, not so good:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0609/24173.html

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The government is not stopping me! Timmy, give me another red.

I am trying to figure out what actual benefits will come out of the latest of Obama’a 100 regulations in 100 days legislation party?
So, essentially the tobacco industry is now under control by the FDA. Those awesome chocolate smokes are going to go away, the use of ‘light’ and ‘low tar’ will no longer be allowed and warning labels will be a lot meaner. The whole ‘goal’ is to decrease the amount of young children starting the habit. Um…Do this for me please. Find someone who smokes and ask them how and why they picked up the habit. Did it have to do with those great tasting mint smokes? The thought that they were not smoking something bad because the warning label was like a greeting card? Or, was it that they tried one (like 95% of youths) liked it and it gradually it became a habit?
I bet you a carton of candy cigarettes that it was the last one. As a pretty much reformed smoker that is how I started. So, why this law? Still reading….Oh, of course!:

Under the plan, the FDA for the first time will monitor and inspect tobacco companies. Cigarette makers must pay hundreds of millions of dollars in fees, register with the agency, and provide a list of all the products they make.

Folks, this is nothing more than a way to tax a business. Why can he not admit it?

Whole article here: http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE55A68920090612?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews
Free The Elephant 2012 – Find some courage display a magnet!

So, have you seen some of the ideas being presented lately by Barry and his team? Look, much of the problems of the economy in the last two years reside in the lack of regulation. I get it. However, this does not mean that a complete opposite approach is needed to make everything better. I mean come on, way to take a bad situation and make it into a rallying cry for liberal ideology. Is that leadership?
The article below which I read in The Triangle Business Journal, scares me a bit. The who article can be viewed here:

http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2009/06/15/daily56.html

But I wanted to highlight the crux of it with this letter to the president from National Venture Capital Association. If you believe that VC’s had anything to do with the current economic crises, please move to Canada. They should continue doing what they are doing and should not be touched:

“The National Venture Capital Association understands the need for these important reforms for investment managers that could pose significant systemic risk to the stability of our financial system.

The current regulatory disclosure requirements are sufficient and have worked effectively for decades. We look forward to working with Members of Congress and the Administration on preserving an appropriate environment for venture activity as this process moves forward.”

What do you think?

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Barry, owning the media has worked for me! Happy to see you are testing it out. My necklace is pretty

I do not know if anyone is familiar with the pending ABC News program dedicated to the Obama health care plan that is scheduled to air on June 24th but this does seem a bit troubling. Basically, the White House is working with ABC in developing the special. So, one of the big three networks is working with the president to advance his agenda? Sounds a little like state run media to me. Sounds a lot like Iran or Venezuela.
What is even more shocking and first broken in The Drudge Report is that ABC is refusing to air any advertising that aims to go against Obama’s push. Here is the link to the article:

http://www.drudgereport.com/flashaot1.htm

I am very curious to see this and even more curious if their media brethren even bring this up.

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I like to make cookies

One of my biggest regrets about starting this blog is that the title does not exactly fit what I am trying to accomplish. Yes, I would really like to have Obama be a one term president. However as the About section (http://freetheelephant2012.com/?page_id=6) explains, I really would like to expose the lunacy of liberals when they have power. 2010, not 2012 should be our first priority.
With all of this being said, I lived in Pennsylvania for 10 years. I really like the people who live in the state, especially those in the western part of it. Western Pennsylvania is as close to the core of America as any state is geographically. This is why I have been very perplexed with John Murtha. I have posted about him before:

http://freetheelephant2012.com/?p=282

Ya see, the guy is a borderline nutbag. Here we have again another example:

June 15, 2009
By Tory Newmyer
Roll Call Staff

House Democrats breathed a sigh of relief last week when the ethics committee confirmed an investigation that likely centers on some of the party’s most senior appropriators.
The reaction was a testament to the success of the Republican pressure campaign to keep the heat on Democrats for dragging their feet on confronting the mounting controversy. With the official word that the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct is in fact probing lawmakers’ ties to the PMA Group, the majority no longer has to worry about beating back a series of resolutions from Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) aimed at forcing an investigation.
Since February, Flake has tied Democrats in knots with the gambit, peeling off a slowly mounting number of their Members — mostly freshmen and sophomores — and continuing the ethics headache for leaders trying to tackle a sweeping agenda.
“It is a relief,” one senior Democratic aide said. “Now Flake can’t come back and say, ‘Why isn’t ethics doing its work, and what are you hiding behind?’”
The ethics committee announcement came about a week after House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) engineered a resolution calling on the panel to disclose within 45 days whether it was looking into the PMA scandal.
While the ethics announcement may mark the end of the Flake resolutions, Republicans don’t intend to allow Democrats even a short-term reprieve. This week, for example, Rep. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) said he plans to offer amendments in the Appropriations Committee, and potentially on the floor, that would rescind funding for earmarks included in the omnibus spending bill earlier this year that were directed to the clients of PMA, a now-defunct lobbying group.
“We ought to postpone spending the money until we see the outcome of the criminal investigation and now the ethics committee investigation,” Kirk said, adding that PMA had become a cloud over the Congress that can no longer be ignored. “We are reaching a tipping point on this.”
And Flake signaled he would use the news out of the ethics committee to argue for suspending earmarks to private companies and to ban campaign contributions from earmark recipients.
But the longer-term threat comes from the scandal itself.
The Justice Department is in the midst of a months-long investigation of PMA, which has close ties to Democratic Reps. John Murtha (Pa.), Peter Visclosky (Ind.) and Jim Moran (Va.). The firm and its clients generated millions of dollars in campaign contributions for the lawmakers, who secured tens of millions of dollars in projects for the shop’s clients.
Federal agents raided PMA’s Arlington, Va., offices in November, and the firm folded earlier this year. The probe officially landed on Capitol Hill late last month, when Visclosky disclosed that his Congressional and campaign offices, as well as some aides, had been subpoenaed as part of a federal grand jury investigation.
Regardless of what, if anything, the ethics committee review turns up, the federal investigation appears to be proceeding apace — and that’s what should keep the party on edge, said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. “Does this give Democrats cover? No. PMA is going to blow up — it’s going to get much worse than it is now,” she said, dismissing the announcement from the ethics committee as “theater.”
Democrats privately acknowledged there is little they can do to stem the fallout from the ongoing federal probe. But they argued they can now point to the fact of the ethics investigation as evidence that the institutional process for self-policing is functioning — a distinction from the years of Republican rule when the committee remain deadlocked and effectively dormant.
“The system is working,” said Nadeam Elshami, spokesman for Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “The ethics committee is conducting its business in a bipartisan way.”
Likewise, Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), a freshman and former director of the government watchdog group Common Cause, said the committee’s announcement should “give people confidence that the process is working.”
Murtha, for his part, said he has yet to be contacted by the ethics panel and is not worried about potentially being the focus of its investigation.
“I do my job. I’m here to do earmarks,” the Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense chairman said. “I’m here to collect contributions. The Constitution says I can do that.”
Asked whether he is frustrated by Flake’s amendments, Murtha said no. “It’s not a pain in my side. … It’s all politics,” he said.Meanwhile, Visclosky got an encouraging sign from the Federal Election Commission that, per his request, he would be allowed to tap his campaign funds to mount a legal defense. The FEC made the announcement in a draft advisory opinion and must still hold a formal vote to approve it.
Steven T. Dennis and Jennifer Bendery contributed to this report.

Enough is enough. Get this man out.

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Hey Barry, where's the beef?

How did I do it? You do believe me? Of course you do not because I have zero facts to back my claims up.
This is the way I have felt for the last couple of months regarding the claims made by Obama and his team regarding all the progress allegedly made in the area of job creation. Seemed a bit vague to me but of course know one would dare question it….
Needless to say, it was refreshing to see the piece below on CBS News last night (Due to the fact that I am an idiot and cannot figure out how to embed video onto this site, below is the link to the piece):

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5081969n

Think that CBS News has turned into a right-wing mouthpiece now? Below is an article sent to me via a reader from the Wall Street Journal:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124451592762396883.html

Questioning the authenticity of statements made by anyone in public office is our Constitutional right. I hope more media outlets remember this.

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It is pretty darn obvious that the price of gas has gone way up in the last 6 months. I am back to the days of putting no more than $40 in my gas guzzler every week as I refuse to fill ‘er up. Still staying back in those days, it has caused me to reflect a bit on all of the W blaming regarding this topic the last time we saw a spike. Remember those? My favorite was that Bush was conspiring with all of his oil buddies to pad their pockets. A really believable theory if you have no idea of how the pricing system for fuel works and you have a screw loose. Here are two polls during this time to remind people of who the American public blamed:

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/cars/2008/06/high-gas-prices.html

http://www.dailyfueleconomytip.com/miscellaneous/who-do-we-blame-for-high-gasoline-prices/

Well, what do you think now? I think this will be a non-issue as far as the media is concerned until we get above $3.50. Then someone at NBC or ABC will show some matrix that exhibits oil prices always going up every 20 years and that the rise since Obama’s inauguration is actually BELOW that average and somehow W is still to blame. How am I doing?

Noel Sheppard actually presents some facts here:

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2009/06/06/price-oil-doubled-inauguration-will-media-blame-obama

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Again…America was worried about Palin? Do you think Obama is thinking about placing Joe in that secure bunker right about now? First, from Andrew Malcolm (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/06/joe-biden.html:

Joe Biden who was a train-riding senator for nearly four decades until Democrat Barack Obama had accumulated the $750 million necessary to become president, spent a good deal of vice presidential time Monday on the telephone touting the administration’s economic stimulus spending package to New York-area media.

Look, this is designed, this totally new tunnel, is designed to provide for automobile traffic. It’s something, as you know, up your way, that’s been in the works and people have been clamoring for for a long time.
Maybe there’s another car tunnel secretly in the works because Manhattan has a chronic shortage of traffic. But presumably the difference between a railroad and an automobile tunnel will be straightened out before traffic actually starts flowing, or it could be just the kind of messy major glitch that Biden and Obama wanted to avoid.

Then this: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/06/10/biden-tells-law-enforcement-groups-sotomayor/

Although not as stupid as the tunnel and other comments he has made, I just do not get why this man is even out in public? Obama is a very calculated and polished man. Why does he expose his Presidency to this bafoon? My favorite part about the Sotomayer article is this at the end:

“That (comment) means that she could probably care less about civil liberties and just do whatever law enforcement wants,” Hall said.
Hall said Sotomayor probably doesn’t sign on to Biden’s remark, though.
“My take on it is that he’s probably just trying to get law enforcement to support him by saying something just completely off the wall,” he said.

What? This is the Vice President. The man that was so much better than ‘the hick from Alaska’ remember?

BTW, He now has his own category on the site! Also, how much you want to bet that if this continues Joe will be replaced for a 2012 run? I will bet you a magnet!

Free The Elephant 2012

I have written over and over again that the amount of promises made by Obama while he was campaigning were going to be very hard to keep while in office. Part of my mission when starting this site was to expose the fact that his urge to appeal to every sector of America will eventually expose him as the fraud that he is. The question is, will anyone in the Republican Party remind him of these failed promises and most importantly his embracing of many of W’s policies after he was elected when he decides to run again for another term? That is up to the Republican Party, the candidates running against him and anyone who considers themselves a Republican.

In the meantime, I point these issues out. From Time/CNN regarding the a recent decision regarding the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy and the United States Military:

James Pietrangelo II, the former Army infantryman and lawyer whose case the high court declined to review, reserved most of his ire for President Obama instead of the court. “He’s a coward, a bigot and a pathological liar,” Pietrangelo said in an interview with TIME shortly after the high court declined to hear his appeal. “This is a guy who spent more time picking out his dog, Bo, and playing with him on the White House lawn than he has working for equality for gay people,” he added. “If there were millions of black people as second-class citizens, or millions of Jews or Irish, he would have acted immediately” upon taking office to begin working to lift “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” Pietrangelo fought in Iraq in 1991 as an infantryman, and returned as a JAG officer for the second Iraq War, before being booted out in 2004 for declaring he was gay as he was readying for a third combat tour. He was representing himself before the high court.

His words, not mine.

It gets better: The endorsement of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” by the Administration marks the latest rightward tack by Obama. The President denounced many of George W. Bush’s national-security policies during the campaign, but in office has adopted more conservative positions, including endorsing military commissions to try purported terrorists, and declining to release a second batch of photographs depicting alleged U.S. maltreatment of Iraqi detainees. His stance on “Don’t ask, don’t tell” may be more surprising, because Obama aides have made clear the President wants the ban lifted eventually.

Pietrangelo doesn’t buy the line from Obama aides — and the Pentagon — that they’re too busy grappling with a faltering economy and two wars to handle the gay ban right away. “It’s a complete lie that he has too much stuff on his plate — this is the guy who criticized Bush for not being able to multitask,” Pietrangelo says. “We have an old saying in the military — the maximum effective range of an excuse is zero meters.”

Pietrangelo may not buy the line from the administration that it has more pressing matters, I do and I do appreciate the fact that Obama did not bring this issue to the forefront in this time of crises. However, you cannot control the courts and when cases are presented and Obama’s DOJ had the opportunity to keep a campaign promise and help support its base and it failed them. Will they remember?

Whole article here: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1903545,00.html?iid=tsmodule

Free The Elephant 2012

I think the reporter for CBS News said it best after covering the speech for their network (not word for word): “It was a speech that was well delivered, yet not one mention of any direct plan”. What is new? What did you expect? The main difference between what we have in the White House now and what we had when W was in office is this exact situation. Even if Bush was given speech lessons from Reagan or Tony Robbins for 200 days straight he would never put himself in the situations that Obama puts himself in. Why? Because there is really no value other than to keep a campaign promise. This is value for Obama. What value does this have for America? Does anyone really think that one terrorist saw this speech and is now a changed man? No, Bush delivered cold, hard, non-pc facts and Obama delivers fluff. This speech accomplished nothing for this country. Nothing.

For probably the best breakdown of this speech, I urge you to click on this link below. Excellent stuff!

http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/026426.php