Saturday, March 3, 2012

It’s a Slam Dunk!

After 4 years of near constant exposure, we’re seeing a few signs that the American people might be suffering a little “Lady M Fabulosity” fatigue. Which is understandable. There’s just so much to admire.

mo crinkles

So even though we’re re-launching our weekly MSM “Lady Obama” series, we’re being  mindful not to overdo it. On the one hand, we don’t want to overwhelm anyone, butt on the other, we don’t want anyone to forget about Lady M’s fabulosity either. It’s a fine line, butt I think you’ll agree that Mary Mitchell hit the sweet spot:

Although you can’t really say Obama gave white Americans its first close-up of the accomplished black woman outside of Hollywood (that distinction goes to former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice).

Really? Condi was accomplished? Nobody in the MSM sure seemed to think so when she was serving as Secretary of State for you-know-who. And she was the first accomplished black woman? Really!!? Because I’ve known a lot of other accomplished black women besides Condi (and Lady M, of course).

Jemison_in_spaceDr. Mae Jemison

Butt I guess doctors, business women and scientists are not as accomplished as Harvard trained lawyers.

But Obama showcased a multi-faceted black woman too often ignored. The Harvard-educated wife and mother is both glamorous and practical.

Her glamorous side has earned her a spot on the world’s best-dressed list, and among the nation’s elite trendsetters.

Her ability to keep it real, even under the brightest spotlight, has drawn criticism from some whites.

For instance, a photograph of the first lady in Bermuda shorts taken when she was returning to the White House from a family vacation was seized upon by her critics.

But black women likely saw the attire for what it was: practical.

mo car grand canyon mo-hawaii usaid

We’re all about Practical

Michelle Obama makes black women feel more comfortable being black women.

Obama seems to have done what Oprah Winfrey and others successful black celebrities could not: She has elevated black women in their own eyes.

Despite being bombarded with skinny images, such as Angelina Jolie’s emaciated arms, the poll found that black women, though heavier, are happier with their bodies than white women…

Michelle Obama might not be able to change the image of black women, but she certainly has made them more visible.

michelleobama

Sometimes, waaaaayyyyy more visible!

So there you have it, Lady M: doing the work that Oprah couldn’t. Since our work on self esteem is done, MO can now turn her focus back to her real passions: Military Families and No Child’s Fat Behind. And fundraising, of course, as apparently they go hand in hand:

Michelle Obama’s efforts today, meeting with young people and military families about the issues that are close to her heart, were most likely part of a strategy to maintain the slight margin Obama enjoys in the state before a Republican nominee is announced.

So yesterday was a busy day, between greeting military families at the Raleigh-Durham Airport:

Mo raleigh durhamNow that’s an impressive black woman! In the uniform.

- and hugging our fat kids behinds:

Following her own motto, Obama joined forces with Democratic Senator Kay Hagen as the children from two Charlotte primary schools competed in a relay. She threw balls to the children and hugged them after the event.

mo poster time

while MOvin’ all over the place,

The First lady concluded her trip with a visit to the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament. At the event, she promoted her program “Let’s Move!” an effort launched by Obama to target childhood obesity by bringing together teachers, doctors, nurses and parents.

Let's Move Mo michael hammer time pantsCheck out these postmodern Hammertime pants! Tres chic & fashion forward!

Obama continued her North Carolina trip with a fundraising luncheon, thrown in support of her husband’s campaign. The audience, mostly women, gave an enthusiastic standing ovation when she mentioned that her husband had signed the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act of 2009…

According to The Republic [ed., another story in the Lady Obama Fabulosity series] the first lady went on to tell the story of her husband’s grandmother becoming the vice president of a community bank through her hard work and determination, only to “hit that glass ceiling.” For Barack, stressed Michelle, “this issue is not abstract.”

The stump speech was very special, touting all the important accomplishments of Big Guy so far so nobody forgets: the Lilly Ledbetter bill, passing Obamacare, saving the auto industry, getting us out of the ditch, out of Iraq, yada yada yada. By now Lady M knows her stump speech by heart and hardly even needs TOTUS TOO’S support anymore.

gw_teleprompters[5]

Butt clearly the two DNC fundraisers were afterthoughts: the real reason for Lady M’s visit was to drop in at the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament in order to give them a “close-up of an accomplished black woman” in order to bolster their self esteem.

johnson C. Smith ladies bball team mo

Obama walked to midcourt and addressed the crowd about her national anti-obesity campaign. She touted basketball as a way to keep active.

“There’s no better way than basketball to illustrate the point (of staying healthy.) We are a basketball family and my husband is a crazy fanatic about basketball,” she said.

That probably explains why Lady M let’s Big Guy watch ESPN whenever he can: working out with her in the morning, late at night while reading briefings, or in between stressful meetings in the middle of the day. Even George W. Bush never had permission to do that.

President Barack Obama, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, Senior Advisor David Axelrod, and personal aide Reggie Love, watch a NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament game in the Outer Oval Office, March 20, 2010.  (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House. “Later Bobby, I’ve got to see if I’ve covered my spread.”

And it probably explains why Big Guy agreed to be interviewed by Bill Simmons on ESPN in the first place.

While his Republican rivals are out tearing one another to pieces, and focusing on more conservative media outlets and Fox News, the president is expanding his reach to American voters in just such venues.

Keep it up, R-words, and it won’t matter where the economy goes because Big Guy will finesse you in the paint.

bo slam dunk

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, Thanks!

Friday, March 2, 2012

Rallying the Troops on the Eastern Front

Big Guy returned to the Eastern Front yesterday to speak to the troops:

manchester nh boNeither rain nor snow nor dark of night will keep BO from his appointed rounds…

snow…or his Obots from theirs

Before dropping in to rally the New York bundlers at 4 (four! in one day!) WTF fund raisers (current count:103. “We’re #1! We’re #1!”), Big Guy did a stop-over in New Hampshire first to inspire the troops and encourage them to continue the good fight against our common enemy: Big Oil.

[Oil] companies are making record profits right now -- tens of billions of dollars a year. Every time you go to the gas tank or fill up your gas tank, they’re making money.  Every time. Now, does anyone really think that Congress should give them another $4 billion this year? Of course not. It’s outrageous. It’s inexcusable. And I am asking Congress -- eliminate this oil industry giveaway right away. I want them to vote on this in the next few weeks

Big Guy would prefer to spend that $4 billion Big Oil subsidy on alternative energy companies. The only problem: so far his green energy company lotto picks have issued more pink slips than green jobs.

Since so many of the losers innovators we’ve backed are going bankrupt and/or laying off most of their employees, (Ener1, A123 Systems, Fisker Automotive, Tesla Motors, Solyndra, Beacon Power, Amonix, National Renewable Energy Lab and Spectrawatt, to name a few.) we might have to consider a new method for awarding those Department of Energy grants. Maybe a lottery.

Bo's big garbage truckBO’s New Big Green Lottery Machine

Maybe that will improve the odds of success. So far we’re a little behind the 8-ball: our picks have racked up losses of at least $2.7 billion. (Which is why we need that $4 billion back from the Big Oil companies – to spread the wealth around.)

800px-Vegas_slotsDr. Chu’s Department of Energy Grant and Loan Center: losses backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government (that’s you and me, baby!)

The latest of Dr. Chu’s lottery winners to squander their prize is Abound Solar. We were really expecting big things from them back in 2010 when they won the Big Alternate Energy Wheel of Fortune:

Touting his push for a clean energy economy, Obama said Abound would "manufacture advanced solar panels at two new plants, creating more than 2,000 construction jobs and 1,500 permanent jobs" at plants in Indiana and Colorado. July 3, 2010

obama_solar"The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the power of the force." h/t Darth Vader

Now that Abound has run out of other people’s money though, it looks like they’re on the same glide path as Solyndra, laying off 70% of their employees ahead of the inevitable crash and burn. Butt here’s some good news: we’ve finally found something that we can give the Do-nothing Congress credit for!

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney highlighted the role of Congress in the loan program when asked about the Abound Solar layoffs yesterday. "I would refer you to the Department of Energy for specifics about any particular loan," Carney told ABC's Jake Tapper during the press briefing. "I would say broadly that it is inherent within these kinds of investments that there is risk, and Congress recognized that risk, which is why they put aside $10 billion in loan lost reserves when they created the program."  March 1, 2012

The good news is that now that Abound’s essentially shutting down, investor (and Big Guy bundler) Pat Stryker can get back out on the fund raising trail and raise some more money for WTF.

Anyhoo, getting back to Big Guy’s populist class warfront against Big Oil: He just wants everyone to play by the same rules in order to give everyone a fair shot at paying their fair share.

5_dollar_gas_is_good_for_america_and_hybrid_cars-700359Your fair share is going up

I’m just not sure how “taxing the Big Oil companies more” is going to achieve his objectives. I don’t know where Big Guy went to Business School (oh that’s right, he didn’t) butt where I went to business school they taught that there’s really no such thing as a “corporate” tax: they all get passed on to consumers. How’s that going to lower prices at the gas tank? (Oh! I forgot: that’s not really our objective.)

I guess our real objective is to reduce our dependence on foreign oil. By not drilling in America. Or something. Whatever, it appears to be working as Big Guy demonstrated with visual aides at yesterday’s New Hampshire luv-in and troop morale booster:

610x

Here - in case you can’t see that from the back row of the audience:

hero_foreign_oilSomething else we can blame on Bush?

Butt since we all know that drilling today won’t do anything about gas prices at the pump tomorrow, is it possible that we can blame this decline in dependence on foreign oil on Bush? Or is it just that the economy is so sluggish and we’re using so much less oil that our domestic supply is able to provide a larger share of our requirements?

Never mind about that last part. I see that I’ve lost Big Guy too.

still got a headache bo “I was told there would be no math.”

Apparently you don’t need much math in law school. Even at Harvard.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

The Only War We Can Believe in: The Class War

We couldn’t hold a parade for our brave soldiers returning from the Iraq warfront because we were afraid that would rile up our antagonists, and we’d have to issue another apology. No, silly; I’m not talking about the Taliban (one apology a week is positively Big Guy’s limit on that). No, I’m talking about Big Guy’s other antagonists: the anti-war combatants.  Not that there are that many of them:

finally-obama-war-protest-political-poster-1267725557The only anti-war “rally” covered by the MSM since Big Guy occupied the Big White

Butt they have been getting feisty and there’s really no point in stirring them up. They’re still demanding that Big Guy come through on his promise to close Gitmo. And since Big Guy discovered he can’t release, relocate or place in witness protection all of the detainees (604 have already been released, butt that’s not enough: there are still 171 left) he tried to placate the “Close Gitmo Now!” club by building the remaining guys a new soccer field for $750,000.

I sure hope that makes them (the anti-Gitmo crowd) happy because they’ve been threatening to form a coalition with our Greenies – who are also threatening to leave the reservation.

Green_party_anti-war_poster

Or at least to occupy the reservation by sitting out the next election all together – which won’t help us at all.

climate-change-protestGreenies waiting for the devastating effects of global warming: and they’re not voting until all domestic production is completely shut down.

So, in lieu of a big showy parade we had a formal dinner for the warriors (or survivors) returning from the 10 year Iraq war at the Big White last night. Of course, we weren’t able to invite everyone who served (or died for) our country with valor in Iraq. So we just had a cozy little dinner for 100 representatives from the ranks of all the military services, plus their guests. So wow! That was, like, what - 200 people for dinner!

entrance_mo boANGAny old excuse will do for a new Jason Wu ball gown

To express the country’s gratitude, we even served up some “occasional treats” that Lady M doesn’t normally allow:

Menu
Salad of heirloom tomatoes with baby mozzarella, basil and balsamic vinaigrette
Dry aged ribeye with béarnaise
Yukon gold potato croquettes
Chocolate creme brulee with brownie and mini-chocolate malted

After all, they did put their lives on the line to protect Lady M’s right to dictate what is served up in school cafeterias by SEIU food processors, handlers and servers. So last night, nothing was off-limits: rich bĂ©arnaise with a lovely USDA well marbleized steak, deep fried potato croquettes, cream brulee and two more chocolate desserts…mmm, mmm,mmm! Butt seriously, how can we ever adequately thank them for their service?

I know, I know: some people think a good way to start would be to stop apologizing to the Taliban for what our military members do in war zones that offends their cultural sensitivities. Butt there are just so many rules and nuances regarding their sensitivities. Take burning for instance:

Offensive: burning Korans

BURNING_KORAN,_OBAMA_CARTOONS

Not Offensive: burning Christians, U.S. soldiers and contractors:

[note: images self-censored due to their offensiveness to the majority of Americans. Which doesn’t count in this discussion, butt still.]

Anyway, I’m sure the troops understand why Big Guy apologized: he was just trying to calm things down. And as he told Bob Woodruff, he thinks it worked pretty well.

 Wow! His ears really are big aren’t they?

Unfortunately, he may have spoken a bit too soon.

And a bit too long:

bo5

Everyone seemed to be losing enthusiasm as the speech droned on.

          article-0-11FACF4A000005DC-580_634x671 and on mo af iraq dinner

He even gave himself a headache:

bo's headache

From now on, we’re steering clear of the War on Terror – that seems to upset so many of Big Guy’s supporters – and stick with our Class War. That’s something we can all get behind. YES WE CAN!

class-war

 

NOTE: Tribute to Andrew Brietbart in post below:

We've lost a great and fearless leader, but the battle to reclaim our country and culture continues. No single person can possibly fill Andrew's shoes, so it will take all of us, working together, harder than ever. His spirit will guide us to victory. 

Please read Greg Gutfeld's short but beautiful tribute: Andrew

We’ve Lost a Great Warrior

andrew breitbart

Andrew Breitbart 1969-2012

R.I.P. Andrew. We will miss you.

The war will resume later today.

UPDATE: WEASEL ZIPPERS documents the ever-classy left’s disgusting reaction. What is wrong with these people?

UPDATE II:

We've lost a great and fearless leader, but the battle to reclaim our country and culture continues. No single person can possibly fill Andrew's shoes, so it will take all of us, working together, harder than ever. His spirit will guide us to victory. 


Please read Greg Gutfeld's short but beautiful tribute: Andrew

Wednesday, February 29, 2012

The Mating Dance: BO’s UAW Speech, Deconstructed

Even USA Today has noticed that Big Guy’s public appearances are morphing into campaign speeches.

here I amThe Shadow Speech Speaker

In his remarks yesterday to the United Auto Workers, Obama discussed the rescue of the car industry while taking more than a few shots at Republican opponent Mitt Romney -- though aides later insisted it was not a campaign speech.

So that’s that, it was not a campaign speech. Just a little “I loves me some UAW” kind of speech. Allow me to deconstruct:

It is always an honor to spend time with folks who represent the working men and women of America.

Let’s HOPE they don’t:  union workers on breakUnion workers busted for drinking and toking on break

 

It’s unions like yours that fought for jobs and opportunity for generations of American workers… It's unions like yours that forged the American middle class -- that great engine of prosperity, the greatest that the world has ever known.

UnionsdudsHow’s that Union representation working out for you, Detroit?

So you guys helped to write the American story.  And today, you’re busy writing a proud new chapter.

fisher body plant 21 end of lineAbandoned auto factory in Detroit: end of the assembly line

 

Take a minute and think about what you and the workers and the families that you represent have fought through.  A few years ago, nearly one in five autoworkers were handed a pink slip -- one in five.  Four hundred thousand jobs across this industry vanished the year before I took office. [ed. 1.7 million net jobs lost in America since then, butt we’re no longer counting]  And then as the financial crisis hit with its full force, America faced a hard and once unimaginable reality, that two of the Big 3 automakers  -- GM and Chrysler -- were on the brink of liquidation.

So instead of letting them go into regular bankruptcy where everyone is forced to play by the same rules, Big Guy arranged a bailout in exchange for a structured bankruptcy, where the UAW got a fair shake (bond holders, not so much, butt then they’re the fat cats, right?)  And it only cost taxpayers $23.6 billion, so far.

So we could have kept giving billions of dollars of taxpayer dollars to automakers without demanding the real changes or accountability in return that were needed

volt signatureAutographed Chevy Volt: “This isn’t the car we wanted to build, it’s the car America had to build …” Big Guy said so.

But that wouldn’t have solved anything in the long term.  Sooner or later we would have run out of money.[ed. Didn’t Lady Thatcher make that same observation once?] We could have just kicked the problem down the road.  The other option was to do absolutely nothing and let these companies fail.  And you will recall there were some politicians who said we should do that.

You remember that?  (Applause.)  You know.  (Laughter.)  Think about what that choice would have meant for this country, if we had turned our backs on you, if America had thrown in the towel, if GM and Chrysler had gone under.  The suppliers, the distributors that get their business from these companies, they would have died off.

detroit abandoned

Then even Ford could have gone down as well.  Production shut down.  Factories shuttered.  Once-proud companies chopped up and sold off for scraps. 

fbp 21 3rd floor snowfallI’m sure glad that didn’t happen

More than one million Americans across the country would have lost their jobs in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Like I said, I’m sure glad that didn’t happen

Their livelihoods were at stake as well.

These jobs are worth more than just a paycheck.  They’re a source of pride.  They’re a ticket to a middle-class life that make it possible for you to own a home and raise kids and maybe send them -- yes -- to college.  (Applause.)  Give you a chance to retire with some dignity and some respect.  These companies are worth more than just the cars they build.  They’re a symbol of American innovation and know-how.

fisher body plant 21

They're the source of our manufacturing might.  If that’s not worth fighting for, what's worth fighting for?  [ed. The Constitution?]

So, no, we were not going to take a knee and do nothing.  We were not going to give up on your jobs and your families and your communities.  So in exchange for help, we demanded responsibility.  We said to the auto industry, you're going to have to truly change, not just pretend like you're changing.

(caption info) --  President Barak Obama exits out of the Chevrolet Cruze, Thursday July 14, 2010, prior to a ground breaking for the Compact Power Inc. advanced battery plant in Holland, Mich.  (The Detroit News / Steve Perez)Big Guy squeezes into the car that “America had to build”

We got the industry to retool and restructure, and everybody involved made sacrifices.[ed. butt some made bigger sacrifices than others]  Everybody had some skin in the game.  And it wasn’t popular.  And it wasn’t what I ran for President to do.  That wasn’t originally what I thought I was going to be doing as President.  (Laughter.)  But you know what, I did run to make the tough calls and do the right things --

esq-barack-obama-football-080311-xlgYeah, give me the Giants in the Super Bowl, even up

And I want you to know, you know why I knew this rescue would succeed?

AUDIENCE MEMBER:  How did you do it?  (Laughter.)

THE PRESIDENT:  You want to know?  It wasn’t because of anything the government did.[ed. It never is]  It wasn’t just because of anything management did.[ed. especially after we changed all the management.]  It was because I believed in you.  I placed my bet on the American worker.  (Applause.)  And I’ll make that bet any day of the week.  (Applause.)

bo wash crumblesYeah, Nancy, put me in for $89 billion on the UAW

And now, three years later -- three years later, that bet is paying off -- not just paying off for you, it’s paying off for America.  Three years later, the American auto industry is back. (Applause.)  GM is back on top as the number-one automaker in the world  --

Apparently that’s “#1” using Government math:

car co ratingsGM! Yay! We’re number… uh…12?

All told, the entire industry has added more than 200,000 new jobs over the past two and a half years -- 200,000 new jobs. And here’s the best part -- you’re not just building cars again; you’re building better cars. [ed. Again, using government standards.] (Applause.)

 

Thanks to the bipartisan trade agreement I signed into law  -- with you in mind, working with you -- there will soon be new cars in the streets of South Korea imported from Detroit and from Toledo and from Chicago. [ed. Since they won’t buy them in Detroit, Toledo or Chicago.] (Applause.)

And today -- I talked about this at the State of the Union, we are doing it today -- I am creating a Trade Enforcement Unit that will bring the full resources of the federal government to bear on investigations,[ed. Yay! Another Federal Agency! And Czar!] and we're going to counter any unfair trading practices around the world, including by countries like China.  (Applause.)  America has the best workers in the world.  When the playing field is level, nobody will beat us.  And we're going to make sure that playing field is level.  (Applause.)

pants on the groundHu Jintao

I’ll just bow over until we’re level

Because America always wins when the playing field is level. And because everyone came together and worked together, the most high-tech, fuel-efficient, good-looking cars in the world are once again designed and engineered and forged and built -- not in Europe, not in Asia -- right here in the United States of America.  (Applause.)

LA FI.Subaru.impreza01.JPGConsumer’s Report #1 car: Subaru Impreza

 

I’ve seen it at GM’s Lordstown plant in Ohio -- (applause)  -- where workers got their jobs back to build the Chevy Cobalt, and at GM’s Hamtramck plant in Detroit -- (applause) -- where I got to get inside a brand-new Chevy Volt fresh off the line -- even though Secret Service wouldn’t let me drive it.  (Laughter.) But I liked sitting in it.  (Laughter.)  It was nice.  I'll bet it drives real good.  (Laughter.)  And five years from now when I’m not President anymore, I’ll buy one and drive it myself. [ed. we’ll probably still have that one you autographed] (Applause.)  Yes, that's right

And then there was room for a little bit of class warfare:

Or you've got folks saying, well, the real problem is -- what we really disagreed with was the workers, they all made out like bandits -- that saving the auto industry was just about paying back the unions.  Really?  (Laughter.)  I mean, even by the standards of this town, that’s a load of you know what.  (Laughter.)

apple2And we all know it takes a big pile of you know what to produce these apples

…before we got around to talking about “values.”

Let me tell you, I keep on hearing these same folks talk about values all the time.  You want to talk about values?  Hard work -- that’s a value. 

414px-Barack_Obama_playing_golfBo, workin’ it – hard. It’s a value.

 Looking out for one another -- that’s a value. 

 

110520-obama-netanyahu-hmed-11a_grid-6x2Bibe Netanyahu, friendless in Washington 

The idea that we're all in it together, and I'm my brother's keeper and sister's keeper -- that’s a value. 

george-obama_thumb[2]George Obama, homeless in Kenya; that’s a value

Butt let’s stick with class warfare:

They think the best way to help families afford health care is to roll back the reforms we passed that’s already lowering costs for millions of Americans.  (Applause.) 

health%20-%20insurance%20premium%20increasesOh oh! How’s that lower premium stuff working out for you?

They want to go back to the days when insurance companies could deny your coverage or jack up your rates whenever and however they pleased.

AP06122907796Oh oh, again! Big Guy isn’t cutting healthcare benefits for active duty and retired US military is he? While leaving unionized civilian defense workers untouched. Is he?

 

They think we should keep cutting taxes for those at the very top, for people like me, even though we don’t need it, just so they can keep paying lower tax rates than their secretaries.

hillary gets a pillow for her back state dept budget hearingBig Guy’s secretary just finds out she’s paying more in taxes than her boss

So here’s a question for you: How does GM’s tax rate today compare to Warren Buffet’s secretary? I think Big Guy should look into that. Right Away! Because we can’t wait!

Linked By: Larwyn’s Linx on Doug Ross@Journal, Thanks!