Big Dogs House

The Nobel Appease Prize

Oct 9, 2009 Opinion

Barack Obama was the “surprise” winner of the Nobel Peace Prize. As my co-writer Blake points out, he has not done anything to earn it. I have to agree, what has Obama done to earn the award? He has been in office for only nine months and nothing he has done has resulted in any kind of peace.

Even those except his most ardent supporters would have to ask what he has done to get this award.

As far as I am concerned the award means little. It has been given to people who have had little to do with peace including Al Gore (who received his for something that was supposed to be science) and Yasser Arafat (who was anything but peaceful). The award is basically a political award and is used to push an agenda, to give some credibility to the people who espouse the same views of the committee regardless of accomplishment.

The nomination of Obama was made just before the 1 February deadline and only 2 weeks after he took office. What was he nominated for? His acts up to that point certainly did not warrant the prize. If the nomination is for past deeds then he certainly did not qualify.

If it was for the deeds of the past nine months then one has to ask what he has done to earn it. What did he do that made him more deserving than the other nominees who actually have accomplishments in the area of peace? Obama has not brought peace to the Middle East. His relationship with Israel is strained and he has coddled terrorists as well as others who wish to do us harm. He has talked a good game but that is not worthy of the award.

This was purely a political move designed to bolster a man who was hurt by the IOCC and by his continual missteps on the world stage.

I am not saying that Obama would not have a term in office (or work after he is out of office) that eventually led to him actually deserving the award, that is something we cannot know. However, it is clear that he has done nothing, up to this point, to deserve it.

The award has always meant little as far as I am concerned because of some of the folks who received it and more importantly, those who did not. Reagan never received one and he certainly had more to do with peace than Carter, Gore or Obama. But the award has been made political and that tarnishes it, in my view.

If Obama has done anything to earn this award it was his appeasement of our enemies and the rogues around the world who would do us harm.

Perhaps the committee thought they were voting on an Appease Prize*…

*Thanks to my friend Doug Ross for this term.

Others:
Absurd Decision (Times UK)
Mixed Reviews, Embarrassing Joke (al-Reuters)

Tags: arafat, gore, nobel, Obama, peace, politics, sham

Swine Flu Diverts Attention

Apr 28, 2009 Opinion, Political

A great deal of attention has been given to the newest outbreak of the flu mostly because this is a strain that is not commonly associated with transmission among humans and there is no vaccine. While it is well and good to pay some attention to it one must wonder why all the CDC warnings and the elevations of threat levels. I certainly understand the travel restrictions but the reality is that there are only 40 confirmed US cases and no one in the US has died (as of this writing). Mexico has handled the issue fairly well and there have been just over 140 deaths in that country.

In the US each year about 36,000 people die from the flu and about 200,000 require hospitalization.

I think that the fervor over the flu is designed to take our attention away from the bad news that has come out lately. GM is getting rid of Pontiac (if you have a low mileage one put it away) and that will result in the loss of 21,000 manufacturing jobs. GM and Chrysler are preparing to file for bankruptcy and this will cause a lot of turmoil in the automotive industry. Ironically, Ford, the only one of the big three not to take bailout money, is doing OK, not great, but better than the others.

The Swine Flu scare is also a great cover for Congress who can work on passing more and more spending packages and enact things designed to give us universal health care coverage without the public debate. They can take advantage of this emergency to pass even more items to drive us ever closer to Socialism.

The Obama Administration has shown that it is a smoke and mirrors operation. They manufacture one crisis after another in order to tire people and wear them down. Then they can keep passing stuff unnoticed and before you know it, BAM, we have all these expensive things and even greater tax burdens. The economy was a crisis that we had to act upon immediately or we might not recover. Then it was not as bad as he thought. Of course, he came to that conclusion after spending a couple of TRILLION dollars to fix the spiraling economy. The stimulus will not kick in for some time. We are seeing some signs of working out of the economic downturn now. This means that things are turning around before the stimulus has had a chance to affect things. If we had done very little or nothing we would be turning around and we would have saved a couple of TRILLION dollars.

But Democrats had an “emergency” to exploit. Let us not forget that George Bush helped put this in motion. I did not agree with it then and I don’t agree with it now. I think the difference is Bush was making an honest attempt to fix things and not taking advantage of the situation. Obama is taking advantage of the problem to nationalize the banks and take over companies.

The Swine Flu, as of right now, is not a cause for alarm (just as Obama said). It is something we should keep an eye on and we should take the basic steps to prevent transmission of the disease. The number one way to do that is to wash your hands. Wash them frequently and the transmission of disease will be drastically reduced. Your mother told you to wash your hands for a reason.

The flu comes each year and makes a lot of people sick and it kills quite a few. These Swine flu reports might be sentinel events indicating a larger problem ahead. We need to keep track but we also need not lose sight of what is going on around us with regard to our politicians.

They will use this “emergency” to their advantage as long as we let them get away with it.

The CDC is tracking the outbreak and has a sign up for Swine Flu updates. There is also good information about the disease and what you can do to reduce your risk. Take the time to read it but don’t let the flu take your focus away. We can worry when it looks like this will become more widespread. Let’s keep an eye on it but let’s keep in mind that thousands get sick from the flu at any one time during flu season and they don’t go bananas like they are right now. This could certainly get worse but as it stands right now, it is a minor outbreak.

The sleight of hand artist The Amazing Obama wants you to look away.

How do the open borders folks feel now? ILLEGALS with swine flu could walk into this country at anytime undetected and spread the disease. This is what you get when you don’t uphold the law.

Tags: crisis, emergency, gm, politics, pontiac, swine flu

Don’t Ask The Question If You Don’t Want The Answer

Apr 20, 2009 Political

I have never been one to sugar coat an answer to a question and I don’t tell the person asking what they want to hear if I feel that is not correct. Of course, like everyone, there are questions I prefer not to answer or that I answer tactfully in order to spare one’s feelings. Does this make me look fat is one such question…

I have always been of a mind that you should not ask a question unless you are prepared for the answer even if it is not what you wanted to hear. Not every answer will be the one you want and some will not be tactful.

During the Miss America Pageant Miss California, Carrie Prejean, was asked by Perez Hilton, a gay man, if she believed in gay marriage (he actually asked her if 46 states should follow the lead of the four that allow gay marriage). Miss California answered in a strange way but she ended up saying she believed marriage was between a man and a woman and that is how she was raised:

“We live in a land where you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite. And you know what, I think in my country, in my family, I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman. No offense to anybody out there, but that’s how I was raised.” Fox News

We don’t live in a land where you can choose to marry same sex. There are a few states that allow it but nearly all define marriage as between a man and a woman. But Miss California committed a sin because she did not affirm to the world that homosexuals should be able to marry. I think she could have answered it a little better but I am happy she stood for her beliefs.

Hilton’s response was rendered on his blog (today) when he said that Miss California was a “dumb b*tch.” Well, he should not have asked the question if he was not prepared to hear this kind of response. He indicated he would have preferred a politically correct response.

The gays in the audience were livid indicating that she should have never been runner up with that kind of belief. Who knows, maybe she would have won if she had given the answer that they wanted rather than the one that honestly depicted her belief though Hilton contends she lost because she is dumb. My understanding is that she was clearly in the lead prior to that question.

The guy who runs the Miss California competition, Keith Lewis, was saddened by her response. Why? Did he not expect her to say what she believed? Perhaps he thought that since she is from California she would be in favor of same sex marriage. One audience member said that her answer was different than 95% of the people in attendance. Perhaps (though there is no way of really knowing), but she comes from a state where voters rejected same sex marriage on several ballot initiatives. Here is what Lewis said:

“As co-director of the Miss California USA, I am personally saddened and hurt that Miss California believes marriage rights belong only to a man and a woman,” said Lewis in a statement. “I believe all religions should be able to ordain what unions they see fit. I do not believe our government should be able to discriminate against anyone and religious beliefs have no politics in the Miss California family.”

If politics do not belong in this then why did they allow Hilton to ask a question that has been the topic of a political battle for quite some time?

If the gay men in the audience (and according to the 95% guy, there were many) want to hear a different answer to that question then they should have their own pageant.

They could call it The Siss America Pageant.

Once again, the tolerant homosexual community is intolerant of someone who disagrees with its agenda. Nowhere is that any clearer than in the response from Hilton.

Tags: gay marriage, miss america, miss california, perez hilton, politics

Uh Oh, Obama Wanted To Fire US Attorney To Get Own Guy

Mar 13, 2009 Political

Let me start off by saying that George Bush was well within his right to fire US attorneys and replace them with whom he wanted. They serve at his discretion. I know there are people who claim he fired them for political reasons and that might be true but Clinton fired all of them to get one out who was investigating a Democratic friend. That is as political as it gets. The key point is that the attorneys serve at the discretion of the president, no matter who that president is.

The left went bonkers over the firing of the attorneys by Bush. They are still fighting that battle and calling witnesses in order to determine if the firings were illegal. I imagine there are some instances where firing them would be illegal like if they were homosexual or because of color but lacking very defined things such as those, I can’t imagine that it was illegal to fire people who served at his discretion. That has not stopped the howling from the moonbats. How much howling will they do now?

Barack Obama wanted to replace Catherine Hanaway, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, and replace her with St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch. Hanaway is a Republican and McCulloch is a Democrat.

McCulloch turned down the job offer from Obama because he wants to stay where he is. However, this begs the question; will the moonbats investigate Obama over this? Hanaway has done nothing wrong but Obama wanted to fire her and replace her with McCulloch who just happens to be one of the Nazis who wanted to prosecute anyone who spoke out negatively about Obama.

This was obviously politically motivated. It is obvious that this is payback for McCulloch’s support and SS tactics on behalf of The Won. Poor Hanaway is a civil servant trying to do the best job she can and is not accused of any wrong doing. Why would they get rid of her?

I say it is because she serves at the discretion of the president and I will bet the liberals will say the same thing.

But that is not how they felt when it was Bush doing the firing.

Karl Rove is going to testify over the Bush firings. Obama could not have given him a better gift.

SENATOR: Mr. Rove, what gave President Bush the authority to fire these attorneys? Don’t you think that was wrong and what part did you play?

ROVE: I don’t think it was wrong because they serve at his discretion. It was no more wrong than Obama trying to fire Hanaway and replace her with McCulloch which recently happened and I want to thank Barack Obama for doing that. She serves at his discretion and he can replace her if he wants. As for what I had to do with it, I gave my opinion when asked.

Source:
KSDK St. Louis
Big Dog Salute to Stop the ACLU

Tags: attorney, Bush, firing, moonbats, Obama, politics, rove

Politics As Usual For President Elect Hope And Change

Dec 23, 2008 Political

Change is on the way. You are the change we need. We need hope and change. This is our time and the time for change is now. With this mantra Barack Obama waltzed into the national scene. He portrayed himself as a regular guy, an outsider to DC politics as usual. The unfortunate reality is that Obama is a typical politician and there is no change in the future.

This guy touts the public education system and is beholden to the teacher’s union. However, he sends his daughters to private school and he did this long before he was elected on 4 November. Then he tapped the leader of public schools in Chicago (a basketball buddy) to be his head of education. The leader of the same school system he would not send his own children to.

Obama made sure he parlayed his Senate seat into a job for his wife where her salary more than doubled. He used questionable methods to have opponents removed from ballots so that he faced no opposition and he has nuanced his answers so that there would be no gotcha moment. Even people who cover for him have learned the Obama nuance as did Hawaii’s director of health, Dr. Chiyome Fukino:

“Therefore, I as Director of Health for the State of Hawai‘i, along with the Registrar of Vital Statistics who has statutory authority to oversee and maintain these type of vital records, have personally seen and verified that the Hawai‘i State Department of Health has Sen. Obama’s original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures.” KITV-ABC

Notice he never said Obama was born here, or that he is a citizen. He only states that the birth certificate is on file in accordance with state policies and procedures. This could mean that it is filed properly but more likely means that it is there in accordance with Hawaii policies that allowed foreign births to be registered in that state. This is nuance that the left has used as official word that Obama is indeed a citizen. Nowhere in that sentence does Dr. Fukina say that he affirms Obama is a citizen. Smart move because if it is discovered later that he is not, well that could mean jail time.

In any event, the average guy Obama and his change from the norm is on vacation in Hawaii. He is staying at a place that costs more to rent for one night than the monthly mortgage of most people (well most responsible people. Those who benefited from the Community Reinvestment Act might have mortgages that high).

The place where Obama is staying rents for $2500-$3500 a night and features 5 bedrooms, 5.5 baths, a pool and a spa. Now this might not seem like much. I mean, he is going to be the president of the US and he needs his Kennebunkport. Or, as his followers might suggest, a fortress of solitude.

What makes this a situation of politics as usual is that the listing for the place has been removed after the AP reported the details of it. Now it might be a matter of security but one would assume that if this were the case it would have been removed before he got there. Also, Oahu is an island and it is not too terribly difficult to guard a man who is staying on a private estate.

It is more likely that Obama did not want the unwashed masses who are losing their jobs because of Democratic failure to see him living the life of luxury. It would not be proper to have the people see The One living high on the hog in such bad economic times.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is nothing but typical political maneuvering. There is no change in that and this is nothing more than politics as usual.

But hey, they got a great shot of of Obama with his shirt off. That should give the left something to fawn over for a while. I can see Chris Matthews’ leg getting all tingly over this.

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Tags: birth certificate, change, hawaii, Obama, peasants, politics