Obama Turning Out To Be Bush Dark

President Barack Obama has much more in common with George W. Bush than his ardent supporters on the left would care to admit in polite company.


Like Bush, Obama is willing to go to war to protect the rights and lives of oppressed people in certain parts of the world where America has strategic interest.

He even started the Libya bombardment on the exact same day that W. unleashed “Shock and Awe” on Iraq.

Obama extended the Bush tax cuts so that they are now the Obama tax cuts for the wealthy.

In 2002 President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to spy on Americans and others in the U.S. making contact with persons in other nations.

President Obama, in a stunning defense of Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program, has not only broadened the government’s legal argument for immunizing his administration and government from lawsuits surrounding the NSA’s eavesdropping efforts but has even gone beyond any previous legal claims put forth by President Bush.

Now, President Obama, when asked, can’t seem to think of any mistakes he’s made during his tenure so far.

Didn’t President Bush get lambasted for the exact same thing a few years ago? Why yes, dear reader, he did.

Obama: Mistakes? Can't think of any.



Seven years ago, in April 2004, President George W. Bush held a formal news conference in which he was asked, "What would your biggest mistake be…and what lessons have you learned from it?" Bush's hemming and hawing answer -- in several minutes of flailing about, he never managed to come up with a single mistake to cite -- was widely criticized in the days that followed.

On Wednesday, President Obama held a town hall at the headquarters of Facebook in Palo Alto, California, during which he was asked, "If you had to do anything differently during your first four years, what would it be?" Obama, it turns out, is no better at analyzing his own missteps than Bush.

The president began his response haltingly, pointing out that he has actually been in office just two and a half years, and "I'm sure I'll make more mistakes in the next year and a half." But what mistakes has he already made? "There are all sorts of day-to-day issues where I say to myself, oh, I didn't say that right, or I didn't explain this clearly enough," Obama said, "or maybe if I had sequenced this plan first as opposed to that one, maybe it would have gotten done quicker."

But the president mentioned no actual mistakes. Next, he brought up the health care battle, not to admit error but to praise the work of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in pushing the national health care bill through Congress.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/2011/04/obama-mistakes-cant-think-any#ixzz1KRAWOcJT

See more Obama & Bush similarities here

My conclusion dear reader is that the Liberals, Lefties and Socialists are becoming increasingly distressed to find that the biggest difference between Barack Obama and George W. Bush is a darker skin tone.



That alone is enough to make a Conservative Capitalist smile.

Happy Easter, Jesus is alive.

Welcome to One Party Rule

Gov. Dannel P. Malloy announced his long-awaited budget deal on Wednesday. The tax increases include, income, corporation, inheritance, gasoline, alcohol, cigarettes, luxury car and yachts, and hotels among other things.


For instance, if you were looking to buy a Mercedes Benz S 550 which comes in at just about 100k, it will now cost you another seven thousand bucks.

But you can still get a haircut and clip coupons. It’s a good thing because after all these taxes kick in we won’t have much folding money left to.

Oh yeah, and we are still waiting for the unions to cough up the 2 billion dollars in concessions over the next two years.

Larry Dorman, chief spokesman for the union coalition, known as SEBAC, said that the state still needs to soak the greedy corporations and evil rich people tooling around in their luxury chariots like the aforementioned Mercedes.

Dorman says, “"We would still like to see much more asked from big multi-state businesses and the very rich who have so far been the only ones to share in our state's so-called economic recovery.''

On the other hand Republicans offered an alternative budget which while it includes no new taxes, also relies on the as-yet invisible $2 billion in union cuts.

House Speaker Chris Donovan says of the Governor’s budget,

"This is a fair, responsible budget that will move Connecticut forward.''

I agree, The Governor’s budget does indeed move Connecticut forward…just in the wrong direction.

But then, we the voters gave virtually all of the reins of power to party of tax and spend.

Well, Stand by.

 

This post uses quotes from Christopher Keating’s Capital Watch piece.

CT Taxpayers are Getting Gassed

Over the past seven days I have been on the road driving throughout the Northeast from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts. So I’ve been buying a lot of gas and paying attention to how much it costs.


The average price for a gallon of regular gas in Connecticut hit $4 April 15th.

According to AAA, which monitors prices at the pumps, gas stations statewide are charging $4 a gallon on average. That is up from an average of $3.75 a month ago and $2.97 last year at this time

Oh and by the way, Connecticut has some of the biggest gas tax totals in the nation and the largest in New England. Currently we pay .65 per gallon.

But our Governor, Dannel P. Malloy doesn’t think we pay quite enough.

State Rep Dan Carter, speaking in The Danbury Patch breaks it down this way

The per-gallon tax total you pay at the pump represents three separate taxes. First, there’s the federal tax—a shade over 18 cents. There’s also a state “gross receipts” tax levied as a percentage of the wholesale price. The rate is 7 percent. When the wholesale price jumps, it creates a state revenue windfall. Today, that tax equals 22 cents per gallon.
Last, there’s a fixed 25-cent tax—and Gov. Dannel Malloy has proposed increasing it by 3 cents to a whopping 28 cents per gallon

Malloy’s Senior Advisor Roy Occhiogrosso says the proposed gas tax hike along with the other across the board tax increases “still maintain the state’s competitive edge.”

Seriously dude? Right now Connecticut’s competitive edge is about as dull as the imitation butter knife in a toddler’s play-set.

Jobs continue to head for the border and the Governor wants to make it harder for workers to reach those remaining jobs by increasing the cost of driving to them by another 3 cents.

Oh and by the way, this isn’t one of those taxes that only effect the wealthy. This is a burden is being placed upon every man woman and teenager that drives a vehicle.

Meanwhile the state, this month sent out over $20 million in longevity bonus checks to employees on the job for ten years or more. Those bonuses cost taxpayers over 39 million dollars last year and the total will rise this year.

This just doesn’t make any sense to me. But then, I’m a Conservative Capitalist.

Photo by April Dawn Winsley

I make a portion of my living by speaking to students in high schools throughout Connecticut and the entire Northeast United States. I visit poor schools and wealthy schools alike. In the process, I have gained some expertise on the education system in general and on students in particular.


The fact that our educational system is failing a frightening number of our students is no secret but the actual toll being imposed on our society by that failure seems to get ignored all too often.

I recently addressed the Senior class at a Hartford High School. My goal, as always, was to motivate and inspire young people to achieve great things.

Sadly, many of the students in my audience didn’t believe that they had a shot at achieving anything, let alone success. That realization raised three questions in my conservative capitalist mind.

If the parents of these students were given the choice and resources to send their children to better schools would they do it?

They probably would.

If this school had to compete for students much the same way businesses compete for customers, would the current abysmal conditions and performance improve?

They probably would.

And finally, would the students benefit from both outcomes?

They definitely would!

We need jobs in this state but we are turning out large numbers of young people poorly equipped to do the jobs that many of today’s businesses need done.

Many of those youth we are failing to properly educate today will revisit us as adult criminals at worse or welfare tax burdens at best.

Stamford Mayor Dannel P. Malloy acknowledged both the problem and the need for immediate action.

Governor Dannel P. Malloy acknowledges the problem but has chosen to kick it down the road by forming a panel to “study” the problem and make recommendations at a later date.

According to this recent story in the CT Mirror.

Malloy administration says no to school reformers' funding plan

By Jacqueline Rabe

Hundreds of students, parents and school choice advocates journeyed to the state Capitol last month to back a proposal that would boost support of magnet, charter and other school alternatives, but Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's budget director says the administration doesn't support the plan.

The plan, referred to as "money follows the child," would shift the state per-pupil grant now given to school districts to whatever school a child attends, including magnet, charter and open choice programs. Many education reform advocates support the idea, but local officials say it would siphon money away from struggling public school districts.

Benjamin Barnes, Malloy's budget director, agreed.

"I do have real concerns for a proposal that would take funds away from local education systems because they are financially strained as they are," Barnes said. "To suggest that [reimbursement] should be $12,000 whether you are in a charter or urban school system is unrealistic.... They have very different demands."

Barnes said the Malloy administration does recognize keeping charters and magnet schools as outliers to the state's school funding formula is problematic, and does plan to bring all education funding under one umbrella -- but not this year…

The Connecticut Conference of Municipalities opposes the idea, the American Federation of Teachers wants to postpone any sort of decision for as long as possible. No surprise there.



I don’t have all the answers but I do know this.

Every time the state kicks this problem down the road and refuses to take meaningful action, another class of students gets thrown under the bus by being educationally shortchanged.

Ultimately, we as a society pay the price.

Government Is the Problem not the Solution

Photo by April Dawn Winsley

This single image speaks volumes about the direction that our country is heading in.

Someone in this municipality’s government believed that motorists, people that presumably passed a driving test in order to get a license, are so stupid that they need written instructions to figure out how a traffic light works. Other elected officials in that same municipality not only agreed with that premise but actually voted to spend taxpayer dollars to purchase and install a sign telling drivers to wait until the traffic signal turns green before proceeding.

What’s next, an awareness program to inform citizens that they should chew before swallowing?

The elitist liberal notion that people are too dumb to take care of themselves without government assistance risks turning the United States of America into a nation filled with dependants who have been robbed of the entrepreneurial spirit and rugged individualism that gave birth to this country in the first place.

It is not too late to change direction.