In Iowa, Barack Obama Ups His Game

President Barack Obama talks with patrons during a stop for lunch at Ross’ Restaurant in Bettendorf, June 28, 2011. Image Credit: Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

In Iowa, Barack Obama Ups His Game

This week saw the President of the United States travel to Iowa for a fund raiser over the same time period the loyal opposition of the Republican party were campaigning to become the choice of the American people to unseat him.

Barack Obama scheduled this manufacturing plant speech for his run to get re-elected over the same time he is wanting to up the nations debt ceiling so that he, and the Democrat party can saddle the American citizenry with more Government spending and debt.

In the speech he came to Iowa to deliver, he made this statement, "You [Alcoa Davenport Works] had to up your game. And that’s what we’ve got to do as a country as a whole."

Before Barack Obama admonished the people of the United States for not playing hard enough and taking their life situations seriously enough, he showed his commitment to his wife's agenda for all Americans to eat healthier by dropping by for lunch at Ross’ Restaurant in Bettendorf.

My Plate replaces the food pyramid as the symbol of Government guidance on eating. Image Credit: choosemyplate.gov

This excerpted and edited from the Des Moines Register -

Obama makes good on promise to stop at Iowa diner
Des Moines Register - 1:47 PM, Jun 28, 2011
By Ed Tibbetts, Quad-City Times

The president then made good on a 2008 campaign promise today, making a quick stop at Ross’ Restaurant in Bettendorf. The diner is off Interstate-74 on the way to Alcoa, which is in nearby Riverdale.

Three years ago, Obama talked with an owner, Cynthia Freidhof, at a town hall meeting, in August, 2008, and pledged to come here.
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“You are so awesome,” Cynthia told the president as they hugged.

The president explained what had happened at the town hall, and that he’d been told about the Magic Mountain.
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The president ordered four Magic Mountains and two Volcanoes. A Magic Mountain has grilled loose meat hamburger on texas toast, covered with french frieds and cheese sauce. Topped with onions, which is called a “snowcap on the mountain.” It becomes a volcanoe by adding chili on the top.

“I think he’s a man of his word, always, and he’s doing the very best job that he can and I just can’t believe he’s here, but it’s real,” Freidhof said.

The president challenged the press with him to eat a Magic Mountain, saying he’d buy it if they ate it. (I’m not sure if anyone took him up on it). The president said the orders he placed were for people on the plane[as if!] .
[Reference Here]

So the President upped his game on eating poorly (or just feeding his staff poorly) in Iowa against the lecturing of his wife's, Michelle, My Plate Campaign upon which the USDA invested over $2,000,000 on the website alone. One has to ask themselves, why did we throw away the food pyramid in favor of a multi-million dollar USDA eat healthy campaign just to have it officially ignored by the people who choose to shove this agenda down our throats? ... all the while being admonished and told to "UP OUR GAME".

Two words:

Up Yours!

Oh! ... and stop (EPA up 125% alone since Obama took office in 2009), STOP spending our money.

(Article first published as In Iowa, Barack Obama Ups His Game on Technorati)

Mitt Romney 2012: A Company Man In A Field Of Mortals

For a candidate already having trouble rallying the Republican base, Mitt Romney seems to have no fear of being labeled a RINO. Speaking at a town hall in New Hampshire, the 2012 candidate came clean with the fact that he believes in the unproven concept of man-made global warming. Between this and “Romneycare,” these are shaping out to be some rather rough primaries for the former Massachusetts governor.Image Credit: mittromney.com

Mitt Romney 2012: A Company Man In A Field Of Mortals

Last presidential election cycle, many were taken by the candidate who possessed the best record of success showing executive leadership turning poor leadership around in both the private business sector and public trust situations. But, alas, even though Mitt Romney was the most popular single candidate the Republican party had for the 2008 election cycle, he was done in with the popularity of two candidates, John McCain and Mike Huckabee, who conspired to topple his effort and end with the best the Republican "Ruling Class" had to offer.

Romney gets vanquished, Huckabee drops out, and John McCain looses to Barack Obama in a contest of Progressive versus Progressive Lite because no one likes a half measure of anything ... even disaster.

After 40 or 50 years of an overriding progressive political culture and agenda by the ruling class based in Washington DC, the progressives finally got their non half-measure leader and our country is rupturing.

We all know the statistics ... 9.1% unemployment after assuring the country that if we use over 860 billion dollars in taxpayer debt the unemployment rate would not exceed 8%, we could keep our doctor with ObamaCare, after ObamaCare passed Congress with a single party majority (Democrat) over 2,000 waivers to comply with the law were issued to save those companies who were favorable to this Government the economic pain of implementation, an outright attack on capitalism beginning with the takeover of a large manufacturing segment of our economy (General Motors & Chrysler) in order to restructure a bankruptcy process that placed the legitimate primary investors to the back of the line to give that position to the AFL-CIO Union in partnership with the Government, and ... you get the idea. Business-as-usual in Washington on steroids.

This excerpted and edited from Pajamas Media -

Islam for Pols: a Primer
June 18, 2011 - 8:31 am - by Roger Kimball

The trouble is, business-as-usual in Washington is the problem, not the solution.

Romney would not be the grade A disaster that Barack Obama has been. But he lacks the gumption to challenge the status quo and make fundamental changes to the way government has been deployed recently in the United States. “I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” Ronald Reagan said those were the scariest nine words in the English language. Government has its place; but it must also be put in its place. Mitt Romney is quintessentially the man from the government incapable of understanding that (in Thoreau’s formula) the government that governs best governs least.

We need more intelligent government, to be sure, but we also need less government: less regulation, fewer programs, fewer bureaucrats, more local, more individual, initiative.

Mitt Romney is a company man at a time when our problem is the company. We can do better. Let’s hope we do.
[Reference Here]

As Roger Kimball so keenly points out, "Company Men" need not apply because it's the "Company" that is our problem.

The company men who are lining up to replace Barack Obama does not end with just Mitt Romney, we need to add to this company man calculation Newt Gingrich. Further, if Jon Huntsman (a Bush family favorite who plans to announce this week) as well as Mike Huckabee jump in, they'd have to be counted as well.

All other candidates - to date, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty (MN), former Senator Rick Santorum (PA), Congressman Michelle Bachmann (MN), Congressman Ron Paul (TX), businessman Herman Cain, and if they throw their hats into the ring, Governors Rick Perry (TX) and Chris Christie (NJ) - would have to be classified as "Country Class" (versus "Ruling Class") or outside of Washington DC beltway mortals.

If we are honest with each other, the only way we can arrest or stop this downward spiral in America and American values of personal freedom and entrepreneurial opportunity, is to change the leadership and culture of the "Company"!

[Article first published as Mitt Romney 2012: A Company Man In A Field Of Mortals on Technorati]

The Barack Obama Economy - Greece-ing Our Skids

President Barack Obama delivers remarks during the Official Arrival Ceremony for Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany on the South Lawn of the White House, June 7, 2011. Image Credit: Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy

The Barack Obama Economy - Greece-ing Our Skids

Yesterday, the United States stock market dropped about 1.5% on fears of extreme unrest in Greece on the news that the citizens there, who have lived in an entitlement/socialist society for decades, have nearly bankrupted the country and can no longer receive the supports to their lifestyles they were accustomed to.

Greece is struggling with a nearly half a trillion dollar debt load, and is working to avoid having to restructure, or worse, default on its debt. However, the Greek public has protested deep spending cuts and austerity measures to save their economy, and plans to privatize government-held entities have fallen far short of the necessary capital requirements.

Last week, President Barack Obama met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and one of the issues they discused was this ongoing problem of the Greecian economy. Greece has already received $161 billion in European bailout assistance, largely orchestrated by Merkel. Now, European finance ministers and international lenders are working on a second round, on the order of an additional $1l7 billion to $146 billion.

After his meeting with Merkel, Obama said the U.S. would participate in the bailout on condition that Germany takes the lead. In a sense, as the largest contributor to the International Monetary Fund, the United States is already participating.

This excerpted and edited from CNBC's moneycontrol.com -

US is in even worse shape financially than Greece: Gross
moneycontrol.com - Published on Tue, Jun 14, 2011

When adding in all of the money owed to cover future liabilities in entitlement programs the US is actually in worse financial shape than Greece and other debt-laden European countries, Pimco`s Bill Gross told CNBC Monday.

Much of the public focus is on the nation`s public debt, which is USD 14.3 trillion. But that doesn`t include money guaranteed for Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, which comes to close to USD 50 trillion, according to government figures.

The government also is on the hook for other debts such as the programs related to the bailout of the financial system following the crisis of 2008 and 2009, government figures show.

Taken together, Gross puts the total at "nearly USD 100 trillion," that while perhaps a bit on the high side, places the country in a highly unenviable fiscal position that he said won`t find a solution overnight.
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Should the debt problem in Greece explode into a full-blown crisis-an International Monetary Fund bailout has prevented a full-scale meltdown so far-Gross predicted that German debt, not that of the US, would be the safe-haven of choice for global investors.
[Reference Here]

We, at MAXINE, are compelled to ask: Why are we bailing out Greece when we should be bailing out ... ourselves?

This is not the time to approve an increase the debt ceiling as the President insists on having the Congress and the Senate agree with him to do. Our country is already way too much in debt on un-funded liabilities alone.

It's time to hit the spending brakes and stop this skid into Government entitlement oblivion.