I've lived in Mtn Home since 1989, so that's...hold on...I'm thinking...WOW! Exactly 25 years! Boy, I think I can almost declare myself an Idahoan. But my family is British and I grew up in Louisiana around lots of other Brits so I still think I'm a little bit of a mutt. Those of you who have been around awhile may remember when I used to blog all the time. My opinions weren't very accepted and there was always an issue because I work for the county. That really wasn't fair because I NEVER blog at work! And I am still entitled to my opinions and thoughts about city and county issues, right? However, it stirred a lot of pots and those pots certainly can make a lot of noise! Since I'm a writer, I took what I wrote in my blog seriously so I spent a lot of time researching things which got exhausting to do when you're not even get a paycheck for it. So I stopped. That was a blessing to many! However, to this day, I still have people stop me and ask me why I wasn't blogging and t! hey missed it. I've missed it. Mainly because there are so many issues that come up and I have no voice except around my friends and I'm sure they are tired of it.

Part 4-More on Character of a President

Posted Wednesday, May 6, 2009, at 8:02 AM

8. He criticized pork barrel spending, told everyone that changes needed to be made in the way that Congress adopts spending proposals, then passes a bill that contains over 8,000 earmarks.

9. He only asked his own Cabinet to cut .0027% of their costs in order to show that "everyone" is having to tighten the belt. Excuse me? Millions are out of work and the rest of us are paying for those govt. spending and salaries and that's the best he can do is ask for that?

10. In early February, the 2010 census was moved out of the Department of Commerce and into the White House, politicizing how federal aid is distributed and electoral districts are drawn. Even worse, ACORN is given the project even though this organization was guilty of voter fraud among other things.

11. He overturned the adult stem-cell research for no apparent reason other than it was connected to Bush. Instead he overturns the ban on using any new embryonic stem cells. Keep in mind that this research has continued but the use of new stem cells had been stopped. This research has yet to show any evidence of helping any diseases when adult stem cell research has been directly responsible for aiding with over 70 diseases.

12. "Mr. Obama is an accomplished orator but is becoming known in America as the 'teleprompt president' over his reliance on the machine when he gives a speech." -- Sky News, 3/18 He speaks robotically as long as he is fed the words, then stumbles when there are no words on the screen. I know for a fact that many others have lost their speech on the teleprompter and managed to speak eloquently and factual without it. They knew their speech and knew their passion.

The President surrounds himself with people with shaddy character. Are these the birds of a feather?

13. Obama taps Nancy Killefer for a new administration job, First Chief Performance Officer -- to police government spending. But it surfaces that Killefer had performance issues of her own -- a tax lien was slapped on her DC home in 2005 for failure to pay unemployment compensation tax on household help. She withdrew.

14. Timothy Geithner nomination as Secretary of Treasury was almost torpedoed when it was discovered he had failed to pay $34,000 in Social Security and Medicare taxes. He also employed an illegal immigrant as a housekeeper. He was confirmed anyway.

15. Not so lucky, Annette Nazareth, who was nominated for Deputy Treasury Secretary. She withdrew her name for undisclosed "personal reasons" after a month long probe into her taxes .

16. Or Caroline Atkinson, who withdrew as nominee for Undersecretary of International Affairs in Treasury Department, with a source blaming the long vetting process. Geithner still has a skeleton crew at Treasury, with no one qualified -- or willing -- to take jobs there.

17. Then another great nomination: Tom Daschle, who worked as a top lobbyist yet was going to be appointed Secretary of Health and Human Services -- until his failure to pay income taxes derailed his nomination. Obama spoke out against lobbyist and the damage they do, yet continues to hand them jobs.

18. Adolfo Carrion was confirmed as Director of White House Office of Urban Affairs, but is serving under a cloud after allegations that he accepted thousands of dollars in cash from developers whose projects he approved.

19. Prioritizing: The problem of a crumbling infrastructure. Consider this: David Walker, former comptroller general of the US, said "we are the 'highest in the world' on education. We are 'the highest in the world' on healthcare. 'Nobody comes even close.' On infrastructure, by contrast, we are 'below average' in both critical new investments and in much-needed maintenance spending." And, as Democratic governor of Pennsylvania Ed Rendell said "when President Dwight Eisenhower left office, infrastructure spending was about 12.5% of non-military domestic spending. Today, it's about 2.5%.The stimulus was a once-in-a-generation chance to change this. Instead, it made the situation worse."

20. Yet, Obama makes the following comment: "We have begun to modernize 75% of all federal building space, which has the potential to reduce long-term energy costs by billions of dollars on behalf of taxpayers. We are providing grants to states to help weatherize hundreds of thousands of homes, which will save the families that benefit about $350 each year. That's like a $350 tax cut." --describing something that doesn't cut taxes. Truth: The average American can only see a tax credit for weatherizing if they can manage to come up with the large sum of money it cost to pay for these projects and only a maximium credit of $1500 (on a project that could cost over $10,000, like a new roof) and only if the products they use are the exact products deemed worthy of being called, renewable-energy home improvements. And considering that more people owe more than their home is worth, getting a home-equity loan is impossible.

I will continue another day. The time is now 7am. Thank you for reading.

Comments

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Now can you please do the same type of article on President Bush. I would like to see the difference in what he said and did and what the truth was. I think it is only far that you compare the two instead of just bashing the one. Lets see how truthful President Bush was.

-- Posted by small town on Wed, May 6, 2009, at 10:08 AM
Detailed, thoughtful, insightful, and ever so skewed. Writing about politics is like debating religion. There really never are clear answers as to why or how.

-- Posted by twilcox1978 on Wed, May 6, 2009, at 11:51 AM
"10. In early February, the 2010 census was moved out of the Department of Commerce and into the White House, politicizing how federal aid is distributed and electoral districts are drawn. Even worse, ACORN is given the project even though this organization was guilty of voter fraud among other things."

No, it wasn't, the IDEA to do so was floated, but ultimately not pursued. Also the Census, whether its part of the Commerce Department or answers directly to the White House DOES NOT draw congressional district boundaries or "electoral districts," that's done by each state independently. ACORN was not "given" the project and the voter REGISTRATION fraud allegations - and yes, there is a difference between registration fraud and voter fraud - have not been proven in any court and are JUST allegations.

Five factual errors in item 10 alone.

-- Posted by ExInternMike on Wed, May 6, 2009, at 1:33 PM
If you had to compare Obama to Bush then you would have to compare him to every single other President. The standing President at this time is the one we are concerned with. Bush was criticised in his day, so was Kennedy, Reagan, Clinton, and so on. Now -- it is the one and only Obama time. Everyone has to forget about Bush and his Democratic congress. This is now Obama and his Democratic Congress. Wow, do I see something that matches in the last 2 sentences. Ummmm.

We can't blame another President for this President's actions or rules. He has made his "demands" and he is to be held accountable for his budget and spending, his comments,decisions, remarks, and appointees. He and only he, is responsible for what HE does.

The subject is what OBAMA has said and done.

-- Posted by midea on Wed, May 6, 2009, at 2:28 PM
This is from the official census bureau website. I'm getting the idea that ExInternMike should do a little more research before he tries to undo factual information. Read it for yourselves.

http://www.census.gov/

Census affects your voice in Congress

Mandated by the U.S. Constitution, the census is also used to apportion seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and to redistrict state legislatures

Census affects your representation in state and local government

Census data are used to define legislature districts, school district assignment areas and other important functional areas of government.

-- Posted by KRKJR on Wed, May 6, 2009, at 3:42 PM
Before I respond about who draws congressional boundaries, Ken, the underlying point is still that the Census Bureau has not been "moved out of the Department of Commerce," as Kim claims. As this March article from FoxNews.com shows-

"'Gov. Locke (then recently nominated to be Commerce Secretary) must promise to keep politics out of the census by retaining control over a fair and accurate count in the Commerce Department,' House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement last week.

Locke told reporters on Thursday that the White House 'has assured me they plan no change in operations or procedures from the past' with regard to the 2010 Census. But he also said he would consult with administration officials about how to count heads."

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/03/lawmakers-seek-remove-census-commerce...

Now, as to drawing congressional districts -

"In the early 1990s, Idaho established a six-member Commission for Reapportionment. 2001 will be the first year Idaho will have used this method of redistricting.

The Commission for Reapportionment draws both congressional and legislative districts. The Commission has six members; no member can be an elected or appointed official. Leaders of the two largest parties in the house and the senate appoint one member for a total of four, and the chairpersons of the two parties with the most votes for governor appoint one each. There is no gubernatorial veto power of either plan."

http://www.fairvote.org/?page=302

A google search shows a variety of articles explaining how different states decide how to draw their respective boundary lines. Montana's state legislature turned it over to a commission as well

http://leg.mt.gov/content/publications/research/past_interim/criteria.pdf

To summarize, "Unless a state's constitution provides otherwise, each legislature has the authority to draw its state's congressional district boundaries."

http://www.tlc.state.tx.us/redist/process_congress.htm

As I said, the states draw the boundary lines. Yes, they use census data to do so. But the final decisions, and whether those decisions are "politicized" rest with each state. Not with the Census Bureau, not with the Commerce Department it will still answer to.

I guess she could allege the administration will politicize the methodology of counting people, but drawing congressional boundaries? No.

-- Posted by ExInternMike on Thu, May 7, 2009, at 1:31 AM
Although the census issue is up in the air and I need more time to research that one. The statement was made, the movement of the census was considered and ACORN was the organization mentioned. The allegations against this organization is also still up in the air, however since they were largely instrumental in the election of Obama, I doubt we will evr know the full extent of their crimes.

Keep in mind, my writing is about the character of the President. These points are factual examples of mistakes made that speak loudly about Obama's character. The fact that he has surrounded himself with questionable people shows alot about him. That being my point.

The thing that pleases me the most is the points I make cause you to think, to question. And as long as we are questioning, then we are not complacent. This is a good thing.

And I am not concerned with the character of Bush. His time is over. It would take a life-time to questions the character of that man and every other man who held that office. Midea is correct on that.

By the way, the time is now 6:33am.

-- Posted by kimkovac on Thu, May 7, 2009, at 7:34 AM
Funny how we "forget" that President Bush went to congress regarding Fannie and Fred in 2001 and asked congress to regulate them. The Dems elected to do NOTHING. Bush stated that they were lending in a risky manner and were headed for a huge fall. Again, Dems elected to IGNORE what was going on.

To say the problems of today are a result of the last 8 years is just stupid. This mess is more than 20 years in the making which means MANY Presidents. However, Obama's recent spending, with no limits, is 100 days in the making with nobody else to thank but Obama and his non-tax paying pals. Good day.

Here is the link to that video that I mention above. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMnSp4qEXNM&NR=1

I know, I know---Fox News is not to be trusted unless they say good things about Obama...then it is okay to listen.

-- Posted by OpinionMissy on Thu, May 7, 2009, at 9:32 AM
Economics and the system are so overwhelmingly complex that asking a few people to steer the ship is like asking one person to watch 10000 kids and not lose track of anyone or anything.

-- Posted by twilcox1978 on Thu, May 7, 2009, at 10:48 AM
I guess I should jump in about character. Does spinning and fabricating the "truth" tell about a man's character?

Just this past week Obama was out front again telling us how he single handedly closed up loopholes used by large companies to keep from paying taxes. Now before some of you go off half cocked, I agree that EVERYONE should pay their share around here. Actually I think it's atrocious that we have to pay at all. Anyways, Obama said that he had saved the taxpayers 210 BILLION dollars over the next ten years. He said that this move would also create more jobs. Now here's the question: How does a company create more jobs if they now have to pay all the taxes they owe? And how does taxing these companies "save" us anything. All it does is pour more $$ into the goverment coffers.

So here comes Obama in the white hat to "save" the populace of the United States AGAIN by making the greedy corporations PAY UP. Funny how he's finding ways to get more money out of us yet his administration just posted the largest government budget EVER.

OHH...and before I forget, better check your pay stubs sports fans. A report issued last week showed the extra money that you are getting from the tax stimulus that Obama got for ya is gonna cost you MORE in taxes this year. On average millions of middle income families will have to pony up around $200-$400 to cover the "extra" money you got back. I for one like that I get a bit back at the end of the year. To have to PAY for a tax rebate sounds kind of ridiculus...I report, you decide.

-- Posted by mhbouncer on Thu, May 7, 2009, at 12:04 PM
No president ever elected nor any that will ever will be elected can speak the truth in blunt, logical, black-and-white fashion. Why? Because Americans dont like to hear the cut-and-dry. We like to hear a positive spin. Go work customer service and you will find out. Politicians, to get elected, have to master the art of mincing their words and always putting a positive spin on everything. Telling Americans that they have to finally not live beyond their means would get one burned at the stake. I am not an Obama supporter but maybe I am too logical for my own good.

-- Posted by twilcox1978 on Thu, May 7, 2009, at 2:55 PM
And when was the last time the news or anyone in office had ANYTHING positive to say truth or not? All that I hear about is more taxes, banks raising rates to raise more money for the Feds., and record numbers of people not able to afford their homes because one or both are unemployed. So, what was the positive spin? That maybe in 4-5 years we will all have $6.00 per hour jobs with no insurance ans will be able to "afford" nothing? Now that sounds fun.

-- Posted by OpinionMissy on Fri, May 8, 2009, at 9:05 AM
If a politician were to speak the truth bluntly and say that Americans need to accept lower wages, forego some spending, and that it is mostly not going to get any better due to decreased demand for the products that we make they would either be ridiculed to death or not elected. Now they get up there and say, "Americans, times are tough now but they will get better. There is considerable progress being made on X front and with Y we can expect rapid gains", people listen and shrug it off. The point is that most Americans like sugarcoating or at least that is what I found out in 3 years of customer service.

-- Posted by twilcox1978 on Fri, May 8, 2009, at 11:13 AM
So what you're sayin Twil is that we liked to be lied to so we can get a warm, fuzzy feeling. Well apparently that isn't working. I want to hear the TRUTH.

Yes twil times will get better, they always do. Nothing stays down forever and the ebb and flow of ecomnomics dictates it will again come up. But for a sitting president to sit there and try to claim he's saving us money, that taxing large corporation more will create jobs is just BS and there's no way around it.

I too work customer service and I take great offense in what you say Twil. My customers are never lied to, at least not by me. I take pride in the fact that my customers come back to me with a smile and ask for my help over and over again. If I lie to my customers they are my customers ONCE! Yes, sometimes they ask about things and I tell them it's a good product, not because I'm trying to fleece them but because most of the things I sell ARE good products. If I see an opportunity to turn them on to a better product or to save them money on something that is just as good, I will. Maybe I'm too honest but my customers are customers for LIFE not just for today.

The same can be said for politicians. By your own words Twil, politicians are in the customer service profession. And it's high time they thought like that. They work for US not the other way around. They are no longer turning out a product for us but are dictating to us what we need and what we will pay for it. Try that in the real world and see what happens. President Obama and his band of thieves had better enjoy the next 4 years. The way they are treating not only republicans but EVERYONE will have most of them out of work in 2012. It has only taken 100 days for the true Obama stand out from the crowd. He now shows what Joe Biden and Hillary said about him in the primaries, he's to green, he's too inexperienced to handle the job. The funny things is neither of them are stepping up to help him since at least one of them has eyes for his job in 4 years...lol. How smart was that? OR is it the old adage of keeping your friends close and your enemies closer. Guess if he turns loose those murderers at Gitmo he can find cushy goverment jobs for them while they are here.

-- Posted by mhbouncer on Fri, May 8, 2009, at 3:17 PM
When i worked customer service and I would tell someone that their computer had seen its better days, they resented me and I was reprimanded. Now i only said this after thorough research and plenty of troubleshooting but they simply could not handle that I did not sugar coat it for them. For example, I almost lost my job because an individual who worked for Merrill Lynch called up and told me that he put his C:/Windows/System32 folder in the recycle bin. I bluntly told them that it was too late for any repair and that his OS was hosed. Anybody who knows anything about computers knows that there is no fixing this. I knew programming and the science but yet I am the villain for speaking the truth.

I guess we will have to disagree because most people in my 30 years do not like cold hard truth. Politicians enact these policies because they know that Americans want to continue to live beyond their means. Americans will only elect those that give them what they want. Most do not want to sacrifice and think long term.

-- Posted by twilcox1978 on Fri, May 8, 2009, at 7:23 PM
There's a reason for the saying, "Truth hurts." Everyone has heard of tough-love and most of us have practiced it a time or two, I imagine, with great results. However, nobody wants to hear or be treated to it. It's human nature to run from the fire whenever possible, though getting a little hot may be the best thing to kick us in the backside and put us back on track. Customer service is a people-art of telling someone what they need to hear in such a way that they are helped. Politicians have a very tough job. I recognize that. I know that it is hard for them as well as us to hold fast to the truth, even if it means our jobs. I've been there. However, the job can't rule your life and truth must prevail. The state of our inner self, soul if you will, is of greater importance than our job. Doing the right Thing is never the easy road and many times, you will suffer and doubt. But your soul will grow and strengthen. Honesty and integrity will nourish the soul. On our deathbed, how important will that be?

-- Posted by kimkovac on Sun, May 10, 2009, at 10:20 AM
No one is always right but thats for another day. I just like hearing both sides of the story. Best thing that can be said about an opinion is that it sparks interest and provokes response. I would say that you (Bazookaman) have accomplished that task.

-- Posted by twilcox1978 on Mon, May 11, 2009, at 9:15 AM
Welcome back Mike. I hope you had a nice trip.

-- Posted by OpinionMissy on Mon, May 11, 2009, at 9:57 AM
I dont know if he is on the same plane with that of Stalin, Hitler, or Lenin. That is a whole different story altogether. The complexity of today's economy takes more than just a few individuals to steer the ship. My sole complaint with him is that of socializing the economy. I think it will backfire in the sense that future Americans will not fear hitting rock-bottom and so will lack the necessary motivation. We may be more advanced and all that jazz but one still should have to overcome struggles to be successful. Living a decent life should entail more than just deciding to get up and start breathing.

-- Posted by twilcox1978 on Wed, May 13, 2009, at 12:13 PM

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