In his State of the Union Address, the O-man said “We face a deficit of trust — deep and corrosive doubts about how Washington works that have been growing for years.
To close that credibility gap, we have to take action on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue — to end the outsized influence of lobbyists; to do our work openly; to give our people the government they deserve.
To close that credibility gap, we have to take action on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue — to end the outsized influence of lobbyists; to do our work openly; to give our people the government they deserve.
That's why -- for the first time in history ..... we've excluded lobbyists from policy-making jobs or seats on federal boards and commissions."
Sounds reasonable.
Except that he didn't really mean it.
Rather, he excluded other lobbyists so that he, and he alone could become the biggest user of cash and favor to influence the votes of elected officials.
Which just happens to be the textbook definition of lobbyist.
Remember the first go-round on Healthcare?
When Louisiana's Mary Landreau changed to a yes vote in exchange for $300 million from Obama?
When Nebraska's Ben Nelson got millions in special benefits for Cornhuskers from the O-man just before he changed his vote to yes?
And who could forget this past weekend, when Bart Stupak changed his vote (and those of several others) to yes after receiving heavy bene's from the O-man?
Stupak has long been a pro-life Democrat, and has frequently and vocally said he would never vote for a healthcare bill that contained public funding for abortion.
According to him, because the O-man issued an executive order, stating that there would be no public money used for abortion, everything with the bill was now wonderful and he could vote for it in good conscience.
His assurances and vote flip gave confidence and solace to at least five other pro-life Dems, who also changed their votes to yes.
Which raises a few of questions:
First, if there is no public funding of abortion in the healthcare bill, why do you need an exceutive order to offset it?
And second, how many of those other five pro-life Dems who changed their votes knew at the time that Stupak had been bought off by the O-man with hundreds of thousand of dollars in Federal grants to Stupak's district days before the vote?
Yep, three airports in the district of Democrat Bart Stupak were awarded $726,409 in grants by the Obama Administration just two days before a vote on Obama and Pelosi’s government takeover of healthcare.
Alpena County Regional Airport received a $85,500 grant, but had only 7,519 passenger boardings in 2008 (the most recent year for which there is information) according to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) data.
Alpena County Regional Airport serves fewer passengers than even the late Rep. John Murtha’s famous “Airport for Nobody.”
Alpena County Regional Airport serves fewer passengers than even the late Rep. John Murtha’s famous “Airport for Nobody.”
Delta County Airport has even less customers than that, but still received a $179,209 grant.
Chippewa County International Airport received a $461,700 grant, but had only 13,733 passenger boardings in 2008.
Each of those grants had been previously turned down in 2010 by the O-man's administration.
In another bribe, Dennis Kucenich, long vocally committed to vote against any healthcare bill not containing a public option, took a one hour ride on Air Force One with the O-man, and stepped off the plane a new man with a newfound supporting vote for the O-man's bill.
Which left many wondering if the O-man's administration was actually using the waterboarding technique on their own.
The O-man didn't "end the outsized influence of lobbyists" to make government better for its citizens.
He ended it to be sure he had no competition, to be sure he would have no opposing views heard when he needed to exercise some Chicago style "persuasion" on those not willing to go along with his agenda.
He ended it so no other lobbyists would shine any light on the extent of his bribery, extortion, and coercion, that when done by anyone else, would be felonious.
Yet few citizens seem aware of those actions, much less appalled by them.
In today's polls, Whiney Harry has an approval rating of only 8%.
Queen Nancy best him by 3% with an approval rating of 11%.
But in both cases, more than 30% of the populace say they "don't know enough about" either Whiney Harry or Queen Nancy to know if they're favorably impressed or not.
The O-man was right about one thing: He's definitely working "to give our people the government they deserve".
At the healthcare bill signing this afternoon, Crazy Joe Biden was heard telling the O-man that "this is a big fucking deal".
For once, Crazy Joe was right.
At least in the first five words he spoke.
“Any path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you.” ---- Carlos Casteneda
“Men are disgusting and, left to their own devices, they will affront the central tenets of human decency - and laugh uproariously at it.” ---- Jonah Goldberg
