A lot of outrageous things have happened over the last week or so. Which one’s the worst – you decide.
Remember when Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused Tea Partyers of using language that could incite violence like she’d seen back in the ‘70s in San Francisco? The mainstream press in covering this alleged that threats against President Obama were 400% higher than they had been against previous Presidents. Well, it turns out, that was a crock. The Director of the Secret Service, Mark Sullivan, was testifying before a Congressional committee last week. He was being pressed by Democratic Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton of Washington, DC, who was espousing the point of view that the Secret Service needed additional agents to protect the first African-American President, because there was allegedly a 400% increase in presidential threats. Director Sullivan replied, “it’s not a 400% increase, I’m not sure where that number comes from, there are the same number of threats as against each of the last two presidents.” So much for the “we’re such a racist country that our own President is in even greater danger” urban legend.
Candidate Obama, and then newly-elected-President Obama promised that his Administration would be “the most transparent ever.” Then, a few days ago, they held a workshop on “government openness” – and you guessed it, it was closed to the public! That’s hardly the image of openness and transparency the Obama Administration wants to project. Realizing how bad they looked, they scrambled for an excuse and came up with “we needed to make sure there would be room for all the government employees attending.” Right. (Of course, they might have a point, because if they get their way on healthcare, cap and trade, and the rest of their agenda, the only people working might well be government employees.)
Next outrage. Chris “a thrill running up my leg” Matthews commented that President Obama giving his Afghanistan speech before West Point cadets was like being in the “enemy camp.” Now it’s probably true that many liberals hold the military in low regard (who can forget the stories about how many in the Clinton Administration denigrated military personnel when they visited the White House – usually behind their backs.) But, when the Commander-in-Chief visits one of our premier military academies, many of whose graduates will be literally putting their lives on the line to defend this nation, he is not in the “enemy camp.” Chris Matthews, you should be ashamed of yourself.
Someone else who should be ashamed, but probably isn’t, soon-to-be-former-Senator Harry Reid. He had the audacity to say that those who had problems with the government takeover of healthcare were the equivalent of those who supported slavery 150 years ago. Of course he meant Republicans, not Democrats like Joe Lieberman. Dingy Harry (as Rush likes to call Majority Leader Reid) might want to have a history refresher, as the Republican party, Abraham Lincoln et. al., was the anti-slavery party, not Reid’s party (or former-clan member Senator Robert Byrd’s). And not to beat a dead horse, but more Republican Senators than Democratic Senators voted for the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. In your face, Senator Reid.
Moving right along. Democratic Senator Max Baucus thinks that it’s just fine to recommend his girlfriend (he’s married but separated by the way) for appointment as a U.S. Attorney! She was a former staffer of his, turned significant other, turned maybe U.S. Attorney for Montana. Senator Baucus said he appointed a “third-party reviewer” and established “an open and fair process” that resulted in his girlfriend being chosen. It turns out that the “third-party reviewer” is a long-time campaign contributor to Baucus, having given his campaign $3,400. By the way, Baucus is leading the Democrats’ effort to pass historic (disastrous) healthcare reform in the Senate. Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has called for a Senate Ethics Committee investigation of Baucus, saying that the panel should determine “why Senator Baucus put his personal needs above the people of Montana.”
Remember the $700 billion TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) which was supposed to save the banking system (and also got used to bail out the auto industry while they were at it?) Well, not all the money got spent, and some of the banks (wonder of wonders) are actually paying their loans back to the Federal Treasury. As most people know, Washington really didn’t have that kind of money in the Treasury in the first place, so the money was borrowed (mostly from China, our banker). Well, rather than pay the money back we owe, and reduce our bone-crushing national debt, the Democrats in Congress (being Democrats) have decided they want to spend the money (that we don’t have). They’ll wrap their spending up in a pretty package, call it a jobs bill (or something equally misleading) and continue the country down the path of fiscal ruin.
And finally, President Obama has once again jetted off to Scandinavia on his carbon-spewing office-in-the-sky to pick up his hard-earned (HA!) Nobel Peace Prize, and to address the other global warming alarmists in Copenhagen. (His adorers are calling it Hopenhagen – get it?) Well, the real outrage here is that the mainstream press continues to ignore the fact that the very scientists who are pushing draconian job-killing action on global warming/climate change, probably cooked the books, as shown by their own emails.
Which of these outrages is the most outrageous? As I said earlier, you decide.
