Blogs For Victory

I am blogging from Buffalo-Niagara International Airport… On my way to Dulles Airport via JFK in New York. I will mostly be posting updates via my Twitter account (@mattmargolis) so you can see how things are going there.

And a timely warning, too:

Canadians packed St. Basil’s Church in Toronto on Monday evening to hear Archbishop Charles Chaput speak about how Catholics should live out their faith in the public square. He warned that in the U.S., Catholics need to act on their faith and be on guard against “a spirit of adulation bordering on servility” that exists towards the Obama administration.

The public lecture by Archbishop Chaput took place on the campus of the University of Toronto at St. Basil’s Church and was attended by an overflow crowd of more than 700 people.

After giving a sketch of the basic principles in his New York Times Bestseller “Render Unto Caesar,” the archbishop offered his insights on the need for an honest assessment of the situation of the Church in the public square.

“I like clarity, and there’s a reason why,” began the archbishop. “I think modern life, including life in the Church, suffers from a phony unwillingness to offend that poses as prudence and good manners, but too often turns out to be cowardice. Human beings owe each other respect and appropriate courtesy. But we also owe each other the truth — which means candor.”

The Denver prelate then provided his critique of President Obama.

“President Obama is a man of intelligence and some remarkable gifts. He has a great ability to inspire, as we saw from his very popular visit to Canada just this past week. But whatever his strengths, there’s no way to reinvent his record on abortion and related issues with rosy marketing about unity, hope and change. Of course, that can change. Some things really do change when a person reaches the White House. Power ennobles some men. It diminishes others. Bad policy ideas can be improved. Good policy ideas can find a way to flourish. But as Catholics, we at least need to be honest with ourselves and each other about the political facts we start with.”

The Archbishop is being a very good Christian when he says that the adulation of Obama is “bordering” on servility. My concern is that it has, at least for some, gone way beyond that. I never thought I’d see such miserable slaves in my life as I see in some of the people who nearly worship Obama, as if he were other than a snappily dressed, well spoken product of Chicago’s hopelessly corrupt Democratic machine. He’s just a man, and not that great a man, into the bargain. Morally he might be splendid (I cannot peer into his soul, of course), but in his public actions, he’s not done anything which warrants anything more than mild approval of the fact that he hasn’t screwed up royally at this point.

Today is Ash Wednesday, and Catholics will go to Mass and have an ashen cross traced on their foreheads – with the words, “Remember, man; dust thou art, and unto dust thou shall return”. I urge the Obamaniacs, Catholic or not, to attend Mass today…you really need to get a grip on the reality of the situation.

Geesh:

Fox News was the ratings leader during prime time and total day during February 2009 — its 86th month on top. FNC averaged more Total Viewers than CNN and MSNBC combined in prime time and total day.

FNC had nine out of the top 10 programs in cable news last month in Total Viewers. The O’Reilly Factor was #1 for the 99th consecutive month, and was up 33% in Total Viewers compared to February 2008. The other top programs included Hannity (up 38%), Glenn Beck (the 5pmET hour was up 100%), The FOX Report with Shepard Smith (up 30%) and On the Record with Greta Van Susteren (up 24%).

But our liberals says that the American people have finally woken up from their BusHitler-inspired stupor and now realize that Fox News is part of the GOP Noise Machine, right?

Discuss such things as how many times Obama lies, exaggerates or otherwise tries to pull the wool over our eyes.

UPDATE: Well, he’ll stop those nasty, mean, EVIL corporate bosses…I’m thrilled at the courage!

UPDATE II: Anyone else creeped out about the way Democrats cheer Obama’s fire and brimstone rhetoric about corporate bosses? I mean, the corporate bosses are Americans, aren’t they? And humans, right? And what about Nancy and Joe behind Obama and their portion of responsibility?

UPDATE III: Obama credits government with all the good we’ve ever done…so, Barry, mind ‘splainin’ why our currency has lost 99% of its value since government started interfering in the economy?

Interesting:

A fund of hedge funds run by two members of Vice President Joe Biden’s family was marketed exclusively by companies controlled by Texas financier R. Allen Stanford, who is facing Securities and Exchange Commission accusations of engaging in an $8 billion fraud.

The $50 million fund was jointly branded between the Bidens’ Paradigm Global Advisors LLC and a Stanford Financial Group entity and was known as the Paradigm Stanford Capital Management Core Alternative Fund. Stanford-related companies marketed the fund to investors and also invested about $2.7 million of their own money in the fund, according to a lawyer for Paradigm. Paradigm Global Advisors is owned through a holding company by the vice president’s son, Hunter, and Joe Biden’s brother, James.

The fund has offered to turn over the $2.7 million investment it received from Mr. Stanford’s firm in 2007 to a court-appointed receiver in the SEC’s civil fraud case involving Mr. Stanford, according to Paradigm’s attorney, Marc X. LoPresti. The fund terminated its relationship with Mr. Stanford’s companies after the SEC filed civil charges against them last week, Mr. LoPresti said.

Just part of the nexus of money, influence and power in Washington, DC and the larger financial world – nothing much to write home about, unless VP Biden turns out to be directly involved, but it does show that by picking Biden, Obama was not at all bringing us real change we can believe in.

It grows, its on Facebook; and it is happening in Tennessee, Houston, Washington DC, St Louis, San Diego, Atlanta, Orlando and Kansas City.

This looks to be growing like wildfire and given the way that Obama is doing everything he can to kill the economy entirely, I can’t see any end to it this side of 2012.

UPDATE: 54% say “no” to bail outs, says Rasmussen.

After one month in office, Barack Obama sees his approval drop, disapproval jump, and all claims of him being “post-partisan” go right down the toilet.

Increased public disapproval of Obama over the past month is mainly offset by a decrease in the percentage of Americans saying they have no opinion of his job performance. The latest figures are based on Gallup Poll Daily tracking from Feb. 19-21.

These shifts result in a slightly different profile for Obama relative to past presidents than what he enjoyed in the immediate afterglow of his inauguration. While Obama’s initial 68% job approval rating was one of the highest in Gallup polling history (from Dwight Eisenhower through George W. Bush), his current 63% job approval rating is typical of how the last several presidents have fared at the one-month mark.

So, as Republicans were clearly willing to give Obama a chance, Obama’s My-Way-Or-The-Highway Style “Bipartisanship” brought his historically high initial approval rating to a historically average approval rating.

According to Gallup, most presidents see an initial rise in their approval.

All newly elected presidents start off with a relatively high approval score, as well as a high percentage of Americans expressing “no opinion” about their job performance. As they start to make decisions, deliver speeches, and work with Congress, fewer Americans have “no opinion” about their performance, and most presidents see an initial rise in their approval rating. Historically, that rise has been evident after a month, and continues at least through the first 100 days.

So what can we make of this? What does this say about the potential approval ratings for Obama in the longterm? I think all presidents from now on will see their approval ratings teeter around 55% after an appropriate time has passed where the presidents performance can be properly judged on his presidential record. I expect Obama’s ratings to hit that mark within the 2009 calendar year. Obama clearly has decided to abandon his promise of bipartisanship, and thus the good will shown by Republicans will bleed away.

UPDATE: Today Gallup reports that Obama’s approval rating has now dipped below 60% for the first time, with independents now starting to see the light:

The drop below 60% approval within the past week — from 63% in Feb. 18-20 polling to 59% in Feb. 21-23 polling — has mostly come among independents. Late last week, 62% of independents approved of Obama, compared with 54% in the last three days.

His approval with Democrats has dipped (although to a statistically insignificant degree) while approval from Republicans, which has already took a big hit, remains unchanged from the last poll.

I did get that one entry up for today, but we buried Dolores yesterday and brought my father home from the hospital, so I was a bit busy. We thank you all for your prayers and kind words over the past week and your patience with the spotty blogging. Henceforward, I should be more productive.

Meanwhile, here’s an open thread for you guys to have at it over all the news of the day.

Which means, of course, they are fleeing anything which might wind up on Obama’s tax increase chopping block:

Wall Street has turned the clock back to 1997. Investors unable to extinguish their worries about a recession that has no end in sight dumped stocks again Monday.

The Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 251 points to its lowest close since May 7, 1997, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index logged its lowest finish since April 11, 1997. It’s as if the decade’s dot-com surge, collapse and subsequent recovery never occurred.

The Dow is just over 100 points from 7,000. Both indexes have lost about half their value since hitting record highs in October 2007.

“People left and right are throwing in the towel,” said Keith Springer, president of Capital Financial Advisory Services.

Here’s a thought, liberals: Justice.

Its a nifty word, which you might want to familiarize yourselves with, as it is key to the success of any democratically governed republic. You have to be just – as the kooks you support shout, “no justice, no peace”…but they don’t understand what it really means. But, indeed, “no justice, no peace”…and, of course, “no justice, no economic recovery”.

It is unjust to single out a part of your population as either the cause of your problems, or whom you must hit hard to make your life better. We are all people, and all of us are Fallen, and all of us bear our aliquot portion of blame for what has gone wrong and, of course, have our personal responsibility to see that things improve. To say that “The Rich” benefited under Bush and must now pay under Obama merely means that you are going to unjustly blame some people for things you had a hand in screwing up.

We need to do things – we need to defend ourselves, maintain and improve our common property, succor the poor and helpless…lots of things need to be done. But to go on a boondoggle of new spending which is entirely designed to pay off political supporters of Obama and his Democrats and demand an allegedly wicked “The Rich” foot the bill is unjust – and, as you can see from our collapsing stock market, counter-productive. You think you know what the deficit will be for fiscal year 2009? You haven’t a clue, because as the stock market loses value, incomes around the economy drops and thus down goes taxable income…you liberals are massively increasing spending and cutting income off right at the knees at the very moment you need to maximize it.

“Stupid” doesn’t even begin to describe this course of action you’ve chosen.

You need to pony up, liberals – stop thinking of yourselves as superior beings who bear no share of what went wrong. You were there, too – you can ignore it all you want, but your Frank and Dodd and Biden and Obama were all there, right at the top of the heap, helping to make the decisions which screwed the economic pooch in the United States. We have to change – and real change, not the fake change your man Obama is engineering.

We need to retrench – cut spending down to the most life and death vital things and cut taxes and regulations on business development which hinder the creation of new wealth. We’ve lost probably trillions in national wealth over the past year, and the only way we’re going to get out of it is to make it back, again. But this time, with wisdom – not with a phony baloney credit system built on air, but on our making, mining and growing things.

Or, you can put your faith in Obama and hope against hope that, some how, spending money we don’t have will make us rich. Your choice – and if you choose as I think you will, we conservatives will reap the electoral benefit in 2010 and 2012.

Binyam Mohamed, an al Qaeda trained terrorist was released from Guantanamo Bay and freed in England.

His release is unprecedented, and an example of Barack Obama’s lack of committment to the War on Terror. All previously released Gitmo detainees had been declassified and determined to no longer be a threat. Mohamed is still classified as an  “Unlawful Enemy Combatant.”

Militray Families United has responded with ad “to bring attention to the dangerous decision the White House has made in releasing Binyam Mohamed, a known member of al-Qaeda and alleged collaborator with the 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohamed.”

According to a release from Military Families United:

Under the dark of night the Administration chartered a plane from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Britain to release this known terrorist as a free man. Actions speak louder than words in the War on Terror, and releasing dangerous terrorists as free men isn’t a way to keep America safe and secure,” said MFU’s Executive Director Brian Wise.

 In addition to the new advertisement, Military Families United distributed a petition to its members to urge President Obama to not release dangerous detainees from Guantanamo Bay if they still pose a threat to the United States. Military Families United will present this petition to the President and urge him to stop freeing terrorists. To see the petition visit http://www.dontfreeterrorists.org/

 “It is important the American people know how dangerous this decision is and how it will affect the ability for our brave men and women in uniform to win the War on Terror. This ad is designed to mobilize the American people to voice their opinions to the President that they do not want these terrorists released back into society where they pose a threat to America and its allies,” continued Wise.

Here is the ad: