Big Dogs House

Democrats Reauthorize Patriot Act

Feb 28, 2010 Political

The Democrats opposed the Patriot Act when Bush was the president, or at least they pretended to. They went on rants about how horrible it was, what an invasion of privacy it was, blah, blah. They tried to end it and to stop it and to change it because everyone knows Bush was really Hitler and he wanted to listen to granny discuss whole grain cookie recipes to help with constipation.

As a candidate for president, then-Sen. Barack Obama railed against parts of USA Patriot Act that gave the Bush administration sweeping powers to intercept phone and e-mail communications in the name of fighting terrorism with little judicial or congressional oversight, and Obama pledged to institute “robust” checks and balances if elected. PolitiFact

The Democrats wanted some provisions in there to add more oversight to the process but those did not make it in. They voted for it and Obama signed it anyway. In other words, the Democrats and Obama extended the very same Patriot Act that they bashed when Bush was president. They passed that which they claimed to have opposed. Obama signed a bill that contains something he was against when he was running for office. He signed a bill that does not do what he promised he would.

The Democratic Underground is not happy.

Neither is Counter Currents.

I guess this is not the change they were looking for or as one of them put it, the more things change…

Those sneaky Democrats added this to the Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act . They did not even have the testicular fortitude to do this as a separate piece of legislation. I think it was by design. Now they can claim they had to vote for it (and Obama can claim he had to sign it) because if they did not Medicare would suffer. Republicans have cover as well. They can claim they had to vote for it because it extended the Patriot Act.

Cowards all.

Additional source:
My Way News

Tags: cowards, Democrats, liars, Obama, patriot act, Republicans

Democrats To Raise Debt Ceiling Again

Jan 21, 2010 Political

Senate Democrats proposed increasing the debt ceiling another 1.9 TRILLION dollars so the government can pay its bills. This is necessary because of the out of control spending taking place in DC. The Democrats are spending us into oblivion and they keep raising the limit so they can keep spending more. Failure to raise the limit will place America in default.

This is the last thing Democrats need after taking a thumping in Massachusetts. This will give Republicans more ammunition for the upcoming elections and this will certainly be fair. The Democrats were certainly not bashful about commenting when the debt ceiling was raised by Republicans:

1. Senate Democrats are expected to use the upcoming debate on raising the limit to highlight the Bush administration’s record on deficits. AP (via Puppet Gov) 9-2007
2. “Any objective analysis of our country’s fiscal history would have to conclude this administration and this rubberstamping Republican Congress are the most fiscally irresponsible in the history of our country. In fact, no other president or Congress even comes close.” Harry Reid commenting on the vote to raise debt ceiling March 2006

This does not include the various liberal bloggers who foamed at the mouth like rabid dogs each time the ceiling was raised. These people told us how Bush ruined the economy and spouted that oft told lie about Clinton having a surplus. They all went nuts talking about tax cuts and the war.

I hear none of them talking about Obama and his Democrats raising the ceiling and then spending more and more each time they do. It is like they raise the limit on the national credit card and then go on a spending spree. We have a spending problem, we spend too much.

This exercise is a ritual that plays itself out on occasion and both parties participate and who leads depends on who is in power at the time. This time it is the Democrats and last time it was the Republicans. The minority party usually takes shots at the majority for its fiscal irresponsibility and then once the debt limit is raised they all line up at the trough to spend, spend, spend.

We have this problem because Congress spends too much money. When Republicans were in charge they spent too much and now that Democrats are in charge they spend WAY too much. None of them have any fiscal constraint and they all seem to think money grows on trees.

In the next election we need to remove all incumbents and put some fresh people in there to get the job done. Vote for the challenger in the primaries and put new people in to run against each other rather than allowing incumbents to run unopposed. I will definitely vote for the person on the ticket who is not the incumbent in my state’s Senate race and in my District. This needs to be an anti incumbent year where we get rid of them all.

But until then it will be fun to beat up the Democrats like they did to Republicans. Nothing personal, it just happens to be their turn.

Related:
US Debt

Tags: debt ceiling, Democrats, Harry Reid, majority, Republicans

When Did Unions Become Part Of Congress?

Jan 14, 2010 Political

The Democrats from the House and Senate have been meeting with Barack Obama in a faux reconciliation process designed to usurp the Constitution and get some kind of compromise on the health care debacle. No Republicans are in on these meetings and they have been locked out of the process all along. The promise of bipartisan legislation was only valid so long as Republicans went along with what Democrats wanted. Republican amendments were voted down and those that made it through are being removed in this so called reconciliation.

One group that was part of the reconciliation were the leaders of the unions. They were upset about the tax on “Cadillac” health plans because their members would be impacted. Those who have such plans who are not in a union will still have to pay.

When did union leaders become part of Congress? Why is it that they are part of the process that involves headlines claiming a deal has been reached? This is from the AP:

The White House reached a tentative agreement with union leaders early Thursday to tax high-cost insurance plans, officials said, removing one of the major stumbling blocks in the way of a final compromise on comprehensive health care legislation sought by President Barack Obama.

I have read through my copy of the Constitution and I could not find a section where union leaders were part of Congress. So I would really like someone to explain to me why they are involved in this process. I am particularly interested because Republicans, WHO ARE MEMBERS OF CONGRESS, have been excluded.

What does this whole process say about the Democrats? How telling is it that the White House and Democrats from Congress will involve union leaders in the reconciliation process and leave elected members of Congress out of the process?

Officials said the agreement was thrashed out over more than 15 hours of negotiating at the White House, ending after midnight. Participants included AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka; Andy Stern, head of Service Employees International Union; Anna Burger, head of Change to Win, and the leaders of unions representing teachers, government workers, food and commercial workers and electricians. Obama’s deputy chief of staff, Jim Messina, was the lead White House bargainer, although Vice President Joe Biden also was involved periodically.

Did you see any Republican members of Congress on this list? Do you see anyone on this list that you elected to be in Congress? Don’t point to Biden, he was elected to be the VP.

Listen up Massachusetts, Scott Brown needs to win to stop this insanity. What do you folks have to lose? You have had Democrats for decades and this election is to complete Kennedy’s term. Send Brown to the Senate and see how he does. If you don’t like the work he does you will have no problem putting up a Democrat who can beat him. Brown can add sanity back to the process and force Democrats to negotiate in good faith.

No matter what your political beliefs, no matter what party you belong to, no matter how you feel about the health care bill, this process has to be disturbing to you. If it does not bother you that duly elected members of Congress are bypassing the process of reconciliation by excluding other duly elected members of Congress to keep from engaging in difficult negotiations then there is not much hope for you.

If it does not bother you that the union leaders were included while members of Congress were excluded then there is no hope for the country.

Tags: Democrats, faux, lies, Obama, reconciliation, Republicans, union leaders

In Obama’s World He Might Actually Be Not Guilty

Jan 10, 2010 Political

The young man the Lame Stream Media calls an “alleged” bomber has pleaded “not guilty” to the charges against him. How he can be “alleged” is beyond me when people saw him try to detonate the underwear bomb and he ended up with his chestnuts roasting on an open fire on Christmas Day.

He might actually be not guilty in the world of Obama. After all, when Obama was making one of his pathetic addresses aimed at deflecting blame away from him (the buck “ultimately” stops at him but not until it hits a lot of others along the way) he said:

“We know that he traveled to Yemen, a country grappling with crushing poverty and deadly insurgencies. It appears that he joined an affiliate of al Qaeda, and that this group, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, trained him, equipped him with those explosives and directed him to attack that plane headed for America.” ABC

This was said as if poverty had anything to do with this and to partially justify the behavior. The “alleged” bomber came from a wealthy family. Poverty had nothing to do with his motivation, a motivation we might never know because his act is being treated like a crime rather than an act of war.

In Obama’s world view through the community organizer lens this guy just needed to be taken care of and nurtured. It would do us well to remember that the terrorists who recruited the Fruit of the Boom bomber are organizing a community as well.

Keep in mind that the Obama minded people believe that Gitmo is the reason behind these kinds of attacks and that closing the facility will reduce terrorism recruitment. None of these intellectual midgets seems to be able to explain how all the terrorists were recruited before we ever held anyone at Gitmo.

Interestingly, the terrorists held at Gitmo would rather stay there because they are being held under the rules of the Geneva Convention. They know that if they are moved to a federal prison they will be under near lock down conditions. According to one of the attornys; “As far as our clients are concerned, it’s probably preferable for them to remain at Guantánamo,” he [Falkoff] says.

Mark Hemingway of the Washington Examiner also notes:

“The strident left-wing critiques of the Guantanamo facility have all centered around the fact that detainees there are horribly mistreated and conditions unbearable. But when push comes to shove, it would seem concerns about Guantanamo are overblown, and the prisoners there know that being held under the Geneva conventions outside the U.S. is much preferable to a maximum security prison in the U.S.”

So the kid from the wealthy family “allegedly” tried to set of a bomb aboard a US airliner because of poverty and Gitmo, the prison Obama said he would shut down in a year (won’t happen), is the place where the terrorists would rather stay if they can’t go home.

Interesting. I wonder if they can sue Obama for torture because he forced them to leave the warm, tropical place where they have some freedom to move about for a freezing cold prison where they will not have so much mobility…

All of this is coming at a time when Obama is overwhelmed by failures. The terrorist got on a plane, CIA agents get blown up by an “alleged” informant, his administration gives conflicting information, and the administration pushes the idea that intelligence people allowed the bomber to get on the plane because they do not like Obama.

Sounds bad. It is but not as bad as Obama having to put in place the things Bush already had in place and that were working. These are the things Obama weakened when he took office:

In a revealing admission, President Barack Obama said today he was directing U.S. intelligence agencies to begin to do something many had assumed they were already doing: “[A]ssigning specific responsibility for investigating all leads on high priority threats so that these leads are pursued and acted upon aggressively.”

“That is a shock because we had such a follow-up system when I was there,” said Richard Clarke, the White House counter-terrorism director in the Clinton and Bush administrations. Clarke, who worked on the Obama transition team, is now an ABC News consultant. Ace of Spades

I have been told by the liberals that it will take Obama a while to clean up the mess left by George Bush. That is all well and good because the mess is defined by one’s politics and, quite frankly, Bush left some messes. However, it is important to note that the office of the president is a continuous one and no person who holds that office ties everything up neatly before leaving. It is supposed to carry over with a smooth transition.

I also doubt Obama will clean up any messes by discarding policies simply because they were ones Bush instituted. Ace points out nicely how Obama pulled back from what we were doing only to see his actions nearly result in the death of hundreds of people, in the air and on the ground. Instead of keeping things that worked in place Obama removed them. He allowed his ego and liberal belief that open fists mean people play nice to get in the way.

In his zeal to show he is on top of things Obama released a declassified report showing how the Fruit of the Boom bomber was able to board the airplane. Basically, Obama told us he was on top of things and that we would stop this from happening again by publishing the instruction manual on doing it. [Big Dog Salute: Just One Minute]

Heck of a job Barry.

At least Barry told us this in a clear, concise manner. He didn’t go speaking negro on us.

Big Dog Salute to Don Surber

Tags: airlines, Bush, Democrats, Obama, Republicans, terror, underwear bomber

Republicans Play Politics With Defense Spending Bill

Dec 19, 2009 Political

Oh the left is up in arms! The Defense Appropriations Bill is before the Senate and it is usually a bill that passes quickly but Republicans are using legal procedural tactics to delay the vote on the bill. The reason for this is obvious, they want to take up time with this bill to delay getting to the health care bill. This is perfectly acceptable and in no way harms the troops.

The bill had a cloture vote at 0100 this morning and Democrats got enough votes for cloture. They then immediately asked for the bill to be voted on but at least one Republican objected. This means there will be 30 hours of debate on the bill and it will be voted on Saturday morning at 0730. The defense funding ends at midnight but the delay to Saturday morning will not affect anything in defense.

The Republicans are smart to require all procedures to be followed and to use up time. If they can keep prolonging the health care debate by using parliamentary procedures and as long as it does not hurt the troops, which it does NOT, then it is OK.

Democrats are indignant about all of this and want to know how Republicans can do this to the troops. These guys have short memories and seem to forget all the times they opposed troop funding and delayed defense bills. The White House site is scolding the Republicans and using quotes from Republicans that were used in the past to oppose delaying funding the troops:

“Playing politics with the critical funding that our troops need now is political theater of the worst kind.” – Sen. John Cornyn, [Press Release, 4/26/07]
“We have plenty of time and plenty of opportunity to have political debates… but it’s just unconscionable to me to tie the hands of the very troops that we all say we support.” – Sen. John Cornyn, [Transcript, Senate Republican News Briefing, 4/10/07]
“Every day we don’t fund our troops is a day their ability to fight this war is weakened.” – Sen. Mitch McConnell, [Press Release, 3/31/07]
“No way to treat the troops, and it is entirely inconsistent with [Senators’] expressions of support for the troops.” – Sen. Mitch McConnell, [Congressional Record, 10/4/07]
“I don’t understand this attitude of, ‘We can play with; we can risk the lives of these troops by waiting until the last possible minute to get the funding to them.” – Sen. Jon Kyl, [FOX News Transcript, 4/10/07]
“Our obligation to those troops must transcend politics.” – Sen. Jon Kyl, [Press Release, 11/8/07]

All of these quotes were in response to Democrat opposition or delay with regard to troop funding bills. This list of quotes proves that Democrats were guilty of the very thing they are now acting high and mighty about. If Democrats were not guilty of the same thing in the past then these quotes would not exist.

The truth is that when the time for debate is over the bill will pass and all the Republicans will vote for it. They are just using all the time allotted for the debate.

Democrats act as if this delay will be the end of the world. When Obama took 90 days to decide on the troop request for Afghanistan the Democrats said he was deliberative and could not rush into a decision. Republicans use the 30 hours allotted for debate and they are the ones delaying the troops and causing harm.

Another point of contention in this bill is that Democrats added a “doc fix” to it. This is a non defense item that will raise the reimbursement to doctors under Medicare. This does not belong in the Defense bill but it was put in so it would be assured of passage. Putting it here rather than in the appropriations for Medicare allows Congress to hide the true cost of Medicare. This will go against defense when it really pays for Medicare. This is one of the accounting tricks I discussed in the past. The cost of Medicare is much higher than reported because of things like this, which happen every year.

This is the bill that Democrats wanted to add a 1.9 trillion dollar provision to raise the debt ceiling. They could have put it in the appropriate appropriations bill but were afraid they would not get cloture so they were going to put it in the defense bill where they knew they would. It was not added because of other concerns including demands for a balanced budget. If it had been added then I would have expected all Republicans to vote against it.

They would still get a defense bill and fast but it would be without the debt ceiling provision.

In any event, it is the Democrats who are playing politics with the defense bill. They wanted to use it to slip the debt ceiling provision in and they have included the “doc fix” both of which are political issues. Let’s get it clear, the only reason this is in the defense bill is because it will pass that way and so they can hide the true cost of Medicare. The impact on our debt does not change but they can hide the true cost of the Medicare program.

This is what they will do every year if health care overhaul is passed. They will put anything that adds to the cost in other bills to hide the cost and the deficit will continue to increase while they lie about why.

The bottom line is, regardless of all the grandstanding being done by Democrats, the bill will pass and the Republicans will vote for it. It will not hurt the troops or defense.

The Republicans are within their right to use the procedures and they did so. If the Democrats wanted this voted on before the deadline then they should have introduced it earlier. The delay is all their fault and it is a failure of leadership.

At least Republicans are doing things legally. The Democrats stopped the reading of an amendment this week and did so in complete violation of Senate rules. They just decided they were going to stop it and allow the sponsor to withdraw the amendment. This is a violation of Senate rules but that did not bother the Democrats.

Yet when Republicans use the rules the Democrats get upset.

The hypocrisy makes me sick.

I do love it though. This forces them to commute to the Senate chamber in the huge snowstorm that is heading toward DC.

How appropriate considering the snow job the Democrats are involved in.

Tags: defense, Democrats, health care, hypocrisy, Republicans, senate rules, troops