While I was Away

I finally got that engineering project out that’s had me tied up the last few weeks, so what have I missed in the world? Here’s something shocking. White House Communications Director Anita Dunn disclosed to the Dominican government that President Obama's presidential campaign focused on "making" the news media cover certain issues while rarely communicating anything to the press unless it was "controlled." Ms Dunn stated that "Very rarely did we communicate through the press anything that we didn't absolutely control. One of the reasons we did so many of the David Plouffe (Obama's chief campaign manager) videos was not just for our supporters, but also because it was a way for us to get our message out without having to actually talk to reporters." I say this is shocking not in the sense of surprise that it happened, but that she actually admitted it. I have to wonder why they would go to this much trouble when the media was already in love with their candidate. Even if a gaffe was made, such as when BHO admitted that he was Muslin, George Stephanopoulos immediately stepped in with damage control saying, “you mean you’re a Christian, right”. Why go to the trouble to control a media who already worships you?

This is the same Anita Dunn, who last June, told an audience of high school students that her "favorite political philosophers" included Mao Zedong, the Communist Chinese leader whose policies are blamed for the deaths of tens of millions of people. A week after the admission to the Dominican’s, Ms Dunn attacked the top-rated Fox News network as an "arm of the Republican Party" and "opinion journalism masquerading as news." One of the first moves in a dictatorship is to silence any objective news media, just ask Mr Obama’s pal, Caesar Chavez. I saw a YouTube video the other day in which Jay Leno announced that the Obama administration had finally decided to employ an additional 40,000 troops… against Fox News.

On another subject, I notice Hillary and BHO are still whining that all of the problems in the world are “inherited” by their administration from the Bush years, even though they’ve been in office for over nine months now. This doesn’t even take into consideration that the Democrats were in control of both houses of congress for two years before they took over the presidency, a fact well hidden by their friends in the media. It also doesn’t reflect the fact that most of the worst laws of the past ten years originated by Carter and Clinton appointed liberal judges legislating from the bench.

I'll have to catch up with the other news later, but think I have time to check out one more story, so… oh, here’s a good one. Hillary has tentatively agreed to a weapons inspection program that would allow the Russians to visit nuclear sites in America to count missiles and our warheads. I wonder if she'll also furnish hand-held GPS units for the tour. This agreement is still tentative, so we must pray that someone comes to their senses before this is allowed to happen. Ms Clinton said the U.S. would be as transparent as possible. Hey, who knew that when BHO promised transparency, he actually meant with the Russians instead of us. Ms Clinton also said that "We want to ensure that every question that the Russian military or Russian government asks is answered." Hmm, this could get interesting. What if the Russians request to see the birth certificate, the background and job description of the czars, or to read the health care bill online?

Why Chicago Lost the 2016 Olympics

We received the news yesterday that the 2016 Olympics has been awarded to Rio de Janeiro. First of all, congratulations to the first South American city to host the games and we hope it will be a big success. As most of us know, US President Obama made many personal appeals for the city of Chicago to host the Games. When they were eliminated in the first round, most of the worldwide media portrayed the rejection as a slap in the face to Mr Obama. It of course, took our major media outlets only minutes after the announcement to begin spinning Katie Couric’s “Dream Team” loss as a big win for “team captain” Obama. Others blamed the radical “right-wing talkers” for the loss. I’ve not heard the charge that the decision was based on racism yet, but it’s still early. It might be a bit difficult now that liberal critics filed a civil rights complaint for racial discrimination against the Chicago 2016 committee last Thursday.

A Newsweek blog called it a big win for Mr Obama since the Olympics typically run massively over budget. This touches on the truth since it took Montreal 30 years to pay off a billion dollar debt from the 1976 Games and the projected budget for London 2012 has ballooned from 3.9 to over 15 billion (and still climbing). Hosting the Olympics is more about civic pride than municipal profits. Since massive budgets and debts have never bothered Mr Obama, this loss is actually a win for the Chicago and Illinois taxpayers (and the rest of us who would pay for another federal bailout). It would have however, greatly benefited many of Mr Obama’s cronies.

So, how did Rio beat out Chicago for the 2016 Olympics? On the positive side, it allowed the IOC (International Olympic Committee) to make history by awarding the Games to a South American city. The Chicago bid however, did not come without negatives, such as the gang violence videos which surfaced at an inopportune time.

We believe the biggest negative against Chicago was the representation by Mr Obama himself. Before taking office, he flew to Europe to proclaim himself a “citizen of the world” and promised a new global agenda, a new world order. Since taking office, he’s made several tours of Europe and the Middle East apologizing that America has been the source of all that's wrong with the world. It is no wonder that, while he’s routinely praised by rogue dictators and Muslin leaders, many in Europe echo the sentiments of Gerald Warner’s article in the UK Telegraph entitled “Why does President Pantywaist hate America so badly?” which begins:

If al-Qaeda, the Taliban and the rest of the Looney Tunes brigade want to kick America to death, they had better move in quickly and grab a piece of the action before Barack Obama finishes the job himself. Never in the history of the United States has a president worked so actively against the interests of his own people – not even Jimmy Carter.

Obama’s problem is that he does not know who the enemy is. To him, the enemy does not squat in caves in Waziristan, clutching automatic weapons and reciting the more militant verses from the Koran. Instead, it sits around at tea parties in Kentucky quoting from the US Constitution. Obama is not at war with terrorists, but with his Republican fellow citizens. He has never abandoned the campaign trail.

Now, after being embarrassed to be an American and spending months throwing the country under a bus to promote his own popularity, in order to benefit his insider buddies in Chicago, Mr Obama found himself in the unfamiliar role of having to promote America instead. In a speech on September 16, he said "Americans, like Chicagoans, -- we don't like to make small plans. We want to dream big and reach high. We hope deeply. We want these games. And if you choose Chicago, I promise you this: Chicago will make America proud, and America will make the world proud." So, after making globalist statements about why Americans should not enjoy her luxuries while the rest of the world was not as blessed, and how no nation should be more important than another, he had to argue that Chicago warrants the Olympics.

Ms Obama also made the trip to help with the pitch. She stated that she didn’t want to go, but that she was willing to “sacrifice for the kids”. In a Hillary Clinton moment, she told the story of how she cheered on Carl Lewis and others while sitting on her daddy’s knee, until it was pointed out that she was 20 years old when Mr Lewis first competed in the Olympics in 1984. She did stop short of saying that, if Chicago was selected, that she would be proud of being an American for the “second time” in her life. In light of the Obama’s previous statements and actions, the IOC must have wondered why they were now arguing in favor of America deserving the Games.

So, we say congratulations to the city of Rio for their selection as host of the 2016 Olympics, and to all Americans for avoiding the huge monetary debts. We can now look forward to cheering on our athletes in the 2012 Games in London.