Budget problems be damned (Part 2)

When you tell the country there's not enough money in the budget for White House tours


and then you, your family, and the other guy (Biden) are taking vacations every month, 

you lose whatever small amount of credibility you may have remaining.


More than a vacation a month for the Obamas, 2013

by Daniel Halper:

In the first three months of the year, members of the first family have been on three vacations, averaging a vacation a month. And now it's being reported that the first daughters are on a spring break vacation in the Bahamas.

The Obamas began the new year in Hawaii .... spending 9 days vacationing with family and friends in his native state. Here’s a quick look at how he spent his vacation," ABC reported on January 6, 2013.

Then the first lady and their daughters vacationed in Aspen over President's Day weekend.

 Obama-daughters-skiing-Idaho

Budget Problems Be Damned,

Joe's taking a vacation vacations

Biden taking third Vacation 2013

#3 March: Easter weekend on Kiawah Island off the coast of South Carolina.
 
#2 February: Biden and family took a trip to Snowmass in Colorado.

#1 January: Biden celebrated the new year in the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Despite budget cuts, and a decision to cancel White House tours in order to save the Secret Service money, the vacation schedules of those the Service protects do not appear to have been hampered.

Cool Parents

Yes, parents can be cool.  Awesome, even.

Like this surfer dad:

And these very considerate new parents:

Moms, too:

And my favorite:

Karma, etc

Karma:
the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect

Also known as 'what goes around, comes around'.

I'm not a snake-lover, neither am I a snake-abuser and I do not go out of my way to harm harmless ones when I see them.

I sincerely hope this person won't do this again:

Texas Woman's home burned down by snake She set on fire

Authorities say a northeast Texas woman recently learned a hard lesson: Don't try to kill a snake by setting it on fire.

The woman was cleaning the yard outside a home near Texarkana Wednesday night when she spotted a snake. Bowie County Sheriff's Capt. David Grable says she poured gasoline on the snake to try to kill it. Her son then dropped a lit match on the snake.

The engulfed snake slithered into some brush nearby the home. Grable says the brush ignited and started a fire that destroyed the home and damaged one next door.

Both homes were vacant, and no one was injured.
Grable says most snakes are harmless if left alone.

A Speech We'll Never Hear

This 2010 column by California talk-radio host Dennis Prager was forwarded to me:

 
A Speech Every American High School Principal Should Give.

By Dennis Prager.

To the students and faculty of our high school:

I am your new principal, and honored to be so.
There is no greater calling than to teach young people.
I would like to apprise you of some important changes coming to our school. I am making these changes because I am convinced that most of the ideas that have dominated public education in America have worked against you, against your teachers and against our country.

First, this school will no longer honor race or ethnicity.
I could not care less if your racial makeup is black, brown, red, yellow or white. I could not care less if your origins are African, Latin American, Asian or European, or if your ancestors arrived here on the Mayflower or on slave ships. The only identity I care about, the only one this school will recognize, is your individual identity -- your character, your scholarship, your humanity. And the only national identity this school will care about is American.

This is an American public school, and American public schools were created to make better Americans. If you wish to affirm an ethnic, racial or religious identity through school, you will have to go elsewhere. We will end all ethnicity, race and non-American nationality-based celebrations. They undermine the motto of America, one of its three central values -- epluribus Unum, "from many, one." And this school will be guided by America's values. This includes all after-school clubs. I will not authorize clubs that divide students based on any identities. This includes race, language, religion, sexual orientation or whatever else may become in vogue in a society divided by political correctness.

Your clubs will be based on interests and passions, not blood, ethnic, racial or other physically defined ties. Those clubs just cultivate narcissism -- an unhealthy preoccupation with the self -- while the purpose of education is to get you to think beyond yourself. So we will have clubs that transport you to the wonders and glories of art, music, astronomy, languages you do not already speak, carpentry and more. If the only extracurricular activities you can imagine being interested in are those based on ethnic, racial or sexual identity, that means that little outside of yourself really interests you.

Second, I am uninterested in whether English is your native language. My only interest in terms of language is that you leave this school speaking and writing English as fluently as possible. The English language has united America's citizens for over 200 years, and it will unite us at this school. It is one of the indispensable reasons this country of immigrants has always come to be one country. And if you leave this school without excellent English language skills, I would be remiss in my duty to ensure that you will be prepared to successfully compete in the American job market. We will learn other languages here -- it is deplorable that most Americans only speak English -- but if you want classes taught in your native language rather than in English, this is not your school.

Third , because I regard learning as a sacred endeavor, everything in this school will reflect learning's elevated status. This means, among other things, that you and your teachers will dress accordingly. Many people in our society dress more formally for Hollywood events than for church or school. These people have their priorities backward. Therefore, there will be a formal dress code at this school.

Fourth, no obscene language will be tolerated anywhere on this school's property -- whether in class, in the hallways or at athletic events. If you can't speak without using the f -word, you can't speak. By obscene language I mean the words banned by the Federal Communications Commission, plus epithets such as "Nigger," even when used by one black student to address another black, or "bitch," even when addressed by a girl to a girlfriend. It is my intent that by the time you leave this school, you will be among the few your age to instinctively distinguish between the elevated and the degraded, the holy and the obscene.

Fifth, we will end all self-esteem programs. In this school, self-esteem will be attained in only one way -- the way people attained it until decided otherwise a generation ago -- by earning it. One immediate consequence is that there will be one valedictorian, not eight.

Sixth, and last, I am reorienting the school toward academics and away from politics and propaganda. No more time will be devoted to scaring you about smoking and caffeine, or terrifying you about sexual harassment or global warming. No more semesters will be devoted to condom wearing and teaching you to regard sexual relations as only, or primarily a health issue.

There will be no more attempts to convince you that you are a victim because you are not white, or not male, or not heterosexual or not Christian. We will have failed if any one of you graduates this school and does not consider him or herself inordinately fortunate -- to be alive and to be an American.

Now, please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of our country. As many of you do not know the words, your teachers will hand them out to you.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Wouldn't it be a wondrous thing to hear an educator speak these sentiments? Alas, I have no illusions that the educators social progressive agents that currently have the power of educating indoctrinating our children would ever do so.

Do you Remember?

  Remember Benghazi?

  

 Remember the 4 dead Americans including the Ambassador?  

 

 Remember the ineptitude of the State Department?  

 

 Remember who was running the State Department at the time?

  Well, Hillary wants you to forget all about it.


Hillary Clinton: Benghazi won't affect whether I run for president



Oh yes, Hillary knows all about the "evidence-based world", they are called FACTS which she ignores, refutes and redefines as a way of life.

"But the woman who was once considered a divisive figure in American politics, yet leaves office as one of its most popular, remained coy about whether she would run for president in 2016." 

 

 
Really, Hillary?   

You're going to run and you and I and everyone else with one working brain cell know it. 

And I find it an extremely sad and disturbing commentary on American politics that you are considered by anyone (with the exception of Bubba) to be 'one of the most popular' Secretaries of State.

Nailed It!

Michael Goodwin has nailed Hillary Clinton:

Hillary Clinton Fawning Farewell Tour

She came, she cried, she conquered, proving it will take more than a lethal terror attack on her watch to sink the unsinkable Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Clinton sailed triumphantly through Congress last week on her way out the State Department door, shredding expectations she would face a tough grilling. The cooling breezes from Democratic punkahwallahs and the fearful quaking from Republican wimps turned what should have been riveting revelations about the Benghazi slaughter into a day of air balls.

The highlights of her appearances — Clinton’s teary eyes over the deaths and furious “What difference does it make?” outburst — mattered only because she showed emotion. Otherwise, she was forced to give up nothing except a few hours of her time.

She was all smiles and chipper the next day when she went back to the Senate with her nominated successor, Sen. John Kerry. Her glide out of government, and almost certainly into the 2016 campaign, reached its climax Sunday night when she and President Obama appeared together on “60 Minutes.” There was mutual slobbering praise as the former rivals linked arms in their interview with CBS's Steve Kroft to the permanent profit of both.

The choreographed Hillary Farewell Tour is the latest reminder that Republicans have no answer for the Democrats’ potent brew of identity politics and the cult of celebrity.

The choreographed Hillary Farewell Tour is the latest reminder that Republicans have no answer for the Democrats’ potent brew of identity politics and the cult of celebrity.

 
No longer a test of performance and results, the political game now is about building a following based on race, gender and other identity markers that are immune to traditional standards of accountability.

Barack Obama wins re-election with one of the more dismal Oval Office records in memory, and Clinton is hailed as a great secretary of state without actually having done anything great.

Obama belongs on Mount Rushmore. If you don’t agree, you’re a racist.

Clinton was a brilliant diplomat. If you don’t agree, you’re a sexist.

The heads-I-win, tails-you-lose nature of Democratic politics these days snuffs out honest debate and competition, but in the short run, it’s an election juggernaut.

And it’s not just Republicans who should worry. As the Democratic Party loses more white men, white male Dems increasingly will face an uphill climb against female and nonwhite primary competitors.

Vice President Joe Biden and Gov. Cuomo, for example, are likely to seek the Dem presidential nomination in four years. If they do, they will be instant underdogs against Clinton. No matter their records and history of pandering to the base, they have no built-in constituency the way Obama did or Clinton does.

Oddly, Clinton concluded soon after losing to Obama in 2008 that she could not challenge him in 2012 because even if she won the nomination, black voters would not show up for her in the general election.

So she traveled the world and kept her mouth shut if she ever disagreed, and is now rewarded with a send-off that smacks of departing royalty. With Obama helping propel her into orbit, she instantly becomes the front-runner for 2016.
But now, while the record is fresh, is the time to apply some inconvenient facts to her tenure at State. A fair reading of the last four years is that America is weaker around the globe, largely by her and Obama’s choice.

Start with the twin terrors of Iran and North Korea. Both are marching toward what they insist will be confrontations with America. While Obama and Clinton tried to stop their nuclear programs with sanctions and, in the case of Iran, sabotage, the policies failed. The confrontation is closer than when the dynamic duo took office.

The Mideast is more of a mess, too, and the policy of turning a smiley face toward the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and elsewhere is a first-rate disaster in the making. The abandonment of Iraq and the plan to quit Afghanistan undercut hard-won success and risk calamitous defeat.

Syria and Libya prove that leading from behind is not leading at all. Al Qaeda groups are rising throughout Africa. China and Russia show they neither fear nor respect the United States.

 
As for our friends, important ones like Israel, Poland and Colombia are alarmed. The Saudis are turning to China, and even Canada wonders whether we are reliable.

Finally, this: Can anyone name a country that Obama and Clinton turned from an adversary into a friend? No, you can’t, because there aren’t any. Not one.

But, as Clinton said about Benghazi, what difference does it make? 

Absolutely none, and that’s her real legacy.

-------------------------------------------

I absolutely believe that Hillary will run for president in 2016 .

And what's even scarier is that I think she will win.

Here's a thought: How many of today's illegal aliens will be registered Democrat voters by 2016?