What can we expect from
the Obama administration?

Note:  You might want to start at the Barack Obama Index Page, especially if you arrived here by using a search engine.

Years of dumbing down the public schools have finally paid off for the Democratic Party.  A number of people who knew little or nothing about Barack Obama voted for him anyway, without considering the adverse ramifications.

This is a collection of post-election commentary about the impending Barack H. Obama presidency.  Here's what we can expect from President Obama and the Democrats in Congress in the first half of Mr. Obama's first term:

The Liberal Laundry List

What Motivates Obama:  Leftist Turnout.  Why is Barack Obama vilifying Fox News?  Why does Harry Reid push an immigration bill he knows can't pass?  Why won't Chuck Schumer compromise on regulatory reform, and why does he try to hang Goldman Sachs around the GOP?  Why did Bill Clinton blame conservatives who oppose big government for the Oklahoma City bombing?  All share one motivation:  to increase their base's turnout in the off-year elections of 2010.

A New Direction.  Obama intends to punish productivity and reward laziness to the point that we become an egalitarian society (where everyone has an equal amount of stuff) rather than a society of equal opportunity.  You've seen ObamaCare.  Our country cannot survive this hideously expensive monstrosity.  But there's more to come.  Cap-and-Trade is on the way.  Unions will become more powerful.  And then there's the Value Added Tax.

Obama's List.  Obama is an example of that peculiar American contribution to the long line of political deviancy:  the romantic leftist, a combination of undergrad Marxism, New Deal activism, Great Society idealism, and late '60s dementia.  In fulfillment of this role, he is going down the list of left-wing daydreams, wish-fulfillment fantasies, and unfinished business, and doing his damnedest to see them made reality.  No more than that, and certainly no less.

Democrats' Quiet Changes Pile Up.  While President Barack Obama still faces stiff headwinds on a range of major legislation on his agenda, he has been signing into law a slew of smaller initiatives that had gathered dust on the Democratic wish list for years.  Many of the bills had been blocked by Republicans who considered the measures unnecessary expansions of government or too costly.

Obama and 'First Americans':  Our president is determined to fully implement President Clinton's Executive Order 13175 relating to "Consultation and Coordination With Indian Tribal Governments."  Clinton's decree coincided with the United Nations' adoption in 1997 of the Declaration of the "Rights of Indigenous Peoples."  The USA and Canada voted against adoption, and this may help explain why President Clinton waited until the very end of his term to quietly issue the Executive Order.

From each group that backed Obama, an agenda.  The flipside of knitting together a winning coalition of techies, anti-war activists, women, labor unions, young voters and the like is:  (a) everybody thinks they were most instrumental in sending Obama and more Democrats to Washington, and (b) they want Obama and the Democrats to make their policy wish lists reality — first.  Or, at least, right after a stimulus bill is passed.

Quincy Jones Leads Chorus Urging a Cabinet-Level Arts Czar.  A call for President-elect Barack Obama to give the arts and humanities a Cabinet-level post — perhaps even create a secretary of culture — is gaining momentum.

Wish lists piling up for Obama.  Labor unions want President-elect Barack Obama to move quickly on universal healthcare and to make it easier for workers to organize.  Latino advocacy groups want immigration reform.  Even the National Trust for Historic Preservation is urging Obama to seek full federal funding "to protect our heritage."  Interest groups are furiously drawing up wish lists for the incoming Obama administration, many of them hoping to cash in on the investments they made — in volunteers, political support, and campaign contributions — in Obama's commanding win.

Jimmy Carter's Race Problem:  When former president Jimmy Carter accuses the opponents of Barrack Obama's policy of nationalizing broad aspects of our economy and spending us into bankruptcy of being "racists," perhaps he should look in the mirror.  In his 1982 book, Keeping Faith, Carter disingenuously said he "was not directly involved in the early struggles to end racial discrimination."  No kidding — in fact, he directly and unambiguously supported segregation.

After Bush, will MoveOn live up to its name?  After more than a decade spent railing against the Republican machine, MoveOn wants to move on — even if it means leaving some of its high-minded ideals behind.  Last week, the group's members chose their top four priorities for the organization, winnowed down from a top-10 list culled from 50,000 suggestions. ... What they chose:  universal health care; economic recovery and job creation; building a green economy; stopping climate change; and end the war in Iraq.

A Nation Tottering Close To Political Idolatry.  [Scroll down]  Even more frightening are a couple of administrative initiatives being bandied about by Obama's supporters.  One hopes to turn his vast army of volunteers and online minions into a "service" organization existing apart from the government (can anyone say SA or SS).  Another seeks to establish a position within the White House that would basically amount to a secretary of art and culture that would establish an "artists corps" at the beck and control of the government, no doubt to paint massive portraits of Obama himself on the sides of public buildings before it's all over with.

The Obama presidency begins to emerge.  Social revolution is what the true believers, Obama's core, were voting for.  The middle class was voting for some vague sense of security, but the core — the sandal-wearers, the ACORN staffers, the Jeremiah Wright congregation, and every last student of Ayers and Dohrn over the past twenty years — are looking forward to some unimaginable combination of Woodstock, the October Revolution, the Book of Revelation, and the Barnum & Bailey Circus.  A new world in which there are no Republicans, guns, Bibles, or Israelis, in which planning and collectivization work, in which there is such a thing as cheap, effective, and universal health care, in which Al Queda simply want to be good neighbors, in which their own varicose veins, incipient arthritis, and extra ten pounds around the middle have simply gone away, and in which Jerry Garcia never died.

Obama Is No Closet Centrist.  After reviewing many of Obama's personnel decisions, it's clear that Obama intends to be anything but a centrist on social issues.  Many of Obama's social policy advisors are leading figures in the abortion industry and heavy hitters of the homosexual lobby.  White House Communications Director Ellen Moran is a former executive director of Emily's List, the leading abortion-focused political action committee.  And Dawn Johnsen, former legal director of NARAL Pro-Choice America, recently was appointed to Obama's Justice Department Review Team.

Promises, Promises.  According to the Washington Post, Barack Obama sent letters to workers at seven federal agencies, telling them he would, among other things:  scale back private contracting, allow paid family leave, impose tougher industry regulation, add staff to the Social Security Administration, and expand bargaining rights to Transportation Security Administration officers.

The Sector Formerly Known as Private.  We're beginning to get a sense of what the next four years will look like.  It won't be a conservative era, that's for sure.  Nor will it, despite appearances to the contrary, be a reprise of the Clinton era. ... Obama's liberalism will be different.  The center of political gravity has moved to the left since the 1990s.  The president-elect does not share his recent predecessors' enthusiasm for free trade.  He also won't face a Republican Congress.  Instead he'll be dealing with, and from time to time confronting, a Democratic Congress eager to enact a kilometers-long liberal wish list.

Liberal Groups Roll Out Their Wish Lists.  Gays serving openly in the military.  Voting rights for more ex-convicts.  Paid sick days and family leave for most workers.  Those are part of a long wish list that liberal advocacy groups hope will become reality as Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats take control.

The Worst Case Scenario:  Many items on [Obama's] wish list don't require the direct expenditure of government money.  A more-than-willing Congress will enable him to redeem his pledge to the trade unions to push through legislation to eliminate the secret ballot in union-recognition elections.  The Environmental Protection Agency probably does not need new legislation to change the rules on carbon emissions so that Obama can achieve his goal of making new coal-fired generation plants totally uneconomic.  The Federal Communications Commission can impose so-called "fairness" rules that make it more difficult for the largely conservative talk radio stations to challenge his government's policies.

The Emerging Threat to Conservative Talk Radio.  Despite President-elect Obama's claim that he will not seek a new "Fairness Doctrine" to silence conservative voices in the media, commentators are bracing for a battle over their free speech rights under the First Amendment.  Indeed, the battle is already underway and the enemies of free speech have made it clear that their censorship campaign will initially be based on claims that conservatives do not reflect "local" and "diverse" viewpoints.  The so-called Fairness Doctrine may come later.

The Obama Fairness Doctrine:  Just three days after the election, a Brookings Institution leader issued a memo to President-elect Barack Obama asking him to restore the Fairness Doctrine.  The Vice-president of Governance Studies at Brookings, Darrell West argues that the Fairness Doctrine would help restore journalistic ethics and fulfill the media's mission to educate the populace.

Will Obama Revive the Fairness Doctrine?  [Eric] Holder's evasive responses represent the first hint that the new Administration may re-open what has been "settled doctrine" within the Department of Justice and in the courts for over two decades; namely, that the old Fairness Doctrine is an unconstitutional restraint on free speech.  Not to mention that the original argument used to justify these restrictions — that the scarcity of media outlets required the government to intervene in order to guarantee a "diversity" of political opinion — has long since been overwhelmed by the proliferation of cable channels, web sites, blogs, and so on.

The Culture War and Barack Obama.  [Obama] says he personally opposes gay marriage, but I can't imagine him working against it.  He's also fine with abortion in cases where the health of the mother is an issue.  Of course, the health of the mother could be a panic attack or a headache.  Based on his voting record in the past, I expect Obama to be extremely liberal when social legislation is presented to him.  I also expect Ruth Bader Ginsburg to have a new best friend if a Supreme Court opening occurs.

Soros-influenced groups make inroads in Obama Administration.  You may say what you want about the man, but he knows a good investment when he sees one.  Washington works by access.  How is this access gained?  By showing support during campaigns.  This Soros has done for Barack Obama.

The Liberal Dream Agenda.  The liberal onslaught comes in four parts:  government-run health care, a cap-and-trade carbon tax, a vast array of personal and business tax increases, and government authority to seize financial institutions in addition to banks.  This is the liberal dream agenda.  If passed, it would do what conservatives fear most.  It would make America more like Europe, with growing nanny statism and more reliance on government, considerably less on individuals.

Obama's liberal arrogance will be his undoing.  The most remarkable, or certainly the least remarked on, aspect of Barack Obama's first 100 days has been the infectious arrogance of his presidency.  There's no denying that this is liberalism's greatest opportunity for wish fulfillment since at least 1964.  But to listen to Democrats, the only check on their ambition is the limits of their imaginations.

Obama's next push is amnesty.  It is no surprise that, after passing health care "reform," President Obama plans to move on to his next big domestic initiative:  granting citizenship to more than 12 million illegal immigrants.  For decades, Beltway and business elites have championed a policy of open borders and unlimited Third World immigration.  Amnesty is simply its logical culmination:  the triumph of political and corporate interests over patriotism.


Pandering to homosexuals

This subsection has moved to a page of its own, located here.




Executive orders -- where are the checks and balances?

The Change You'll Get:  Who says you can't have it all?  The Democrats — the Left — now have the White House, control of both houses of Congress, a majority of governors' mansions, a majority of state legislatures, the entertainment media, the elite news media, the unions, the educational establishment, the lion's share of the philanthropic community, and increasing power over the courts.

Dealing with terrorists

Will Obama Let bin Laden's Driver Go Free?  He has been tried, convicted and sentenced.  But when Salim Hamdan finishes his time at Guantanamo this December, he may not immediately walk free.  The Bush administration has made clear it believes it could hold this Yemeni detainee past his sentence as an enemy combatant.  The question now is what will President Barack Obama do?

No We Can't.  Barack Obama's emphasis on diplomacy and internationalism will do nothing to prevent Iran from attaining nuclear weapons.  The mullahs in Tehran are not open to compromise, and cannot be made any more pliable by the impositions of a stricter sanctions regime.  Any attempts at diplomacy or institution of sanctions are, from here on out, aimed at building an evidentiary case that every non-military option will have been exhausted.  Once that case can be made, Obama will either give the order to bomb Iran or let the Khomeinist regime in Tehran assert complete regional hegemony.  There will not be, nor has there ever been, a third option.

The Presidency Is Not An Entry-Level Position.  Obama has four positions related to the war which, in my view, disqualify him for the presidency.  First, how can a serious candidate for President of the United States have a long-standing goal to end the war rather than win it?  Great presidents don't end wars — they win them.  The only way the American military can be defeated is when American leaders forfeit the fight for them.  And that's exactly what Obama has wanted to do for years.

No War on Terror under Obama.  Lost in the dramatic disaster unfolding on Wall Street and the brazen hypocrisy of the Hillary Clinton nomination is President-elect Obama's double signal that the war on terror is now over.  His appointment of Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano as Secretary of Homeland Security signals that the Department will once again focus on southern border immigration issues rather than on fighting terrorism.

Many Homeland Security Programs Can Be Ended Under Obama, ACLU Says.  Many of the programs created under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after 9/11 can be dispensed with, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.  And the incoming Obama administration will make major renovations in the DHS that will strengthen privacy rights for individuals, civil rights activists said at a conference on Wednesday.

Obama's Muslim Speech:  Barack Obama is toying with the idea of making a speech from an Islamic capital within his first 100 days in office.  The scuttlebutt is all about finding the right one.  (The consensus is Cairo — which is a terrible idea.  An Obama speech there would be read as a shameful acceptance of Mubarak's oppressive rule.)  But my question is:  what would he say?

Obama says he wants to 'reboot' America's battered image among Muslims.  President-elect Barack Obama says he will try to "reboot America's image" among the world's Muslims and will follow tradition by using his entire name — Barack Hussein Obama — in his swearing-in ceremony.

What's in a Middle Name?  In an exclusive interview with the Chicago Tribune, Obama said he'll use his full name in the [swearing-in] ceremony like every other president.  I have no problem with that, as far as it goes.  But Obama went further.  He's not using his middle name simply because it's his middle name, but as part of a deliberate strategy to "reboot America's image" among the world's Muslims.  He also plans to deliver a major speech in an Islamic capital, possibly within the first 100 days of his presidency.  Why, you might ask, is all this necessary?  Simple:  because of President Bush's myriad sins against Muslims since 9/11.

See more discussion under Can Obama handle the threat of Islamic terrorism?

More influence for the UN

Global agenda?  When candidate Barack Obama declared himself a "citizen of the world" before thousands of cheering German socialists, and later pledged to "rejoin the world community," those weren't just his usual platitudes about "change."  Those words sounded the trumpet for his specific and far-reaching globalist agenda.  Mr. Obama plans to use his presidential power to get the Democratic-majority Senate to ratify a series of treaties that would take us a long way toward global rule over our money, our laws, our military, our courts, our customs, our trade, and even our use of energy.

U.S. Expected to Reverse Course on United Nations.  The United States' relationship with the United Nations faces a major change under the next administration.  Those advocating greater U.S. engagement with the world body are lining up with advice for President-elect Barack Obama.

U.N. looks for better times when Obama takes over.  Standing in the line of those hoping for a better deal from U.S. President-elect Barack Obama than they got from outgoing President George W. Bush is a body representing the entire world:  the United Nations.  Despite public protestations of neutrality in the November 4 presidential election, there has been thinly disguised glee at U.N. headquarters that Democrat Obama defeated Republican John McCain.

U.N.American Agenda.  Nobody is happier about the election of Barack Obama to the Presidency of the United States than the folks at the United Nations. ... The U.N. is an uncomplicated place.  Every sick, unsatiated tyrant, European has-been, or miserable wretch brainwashed about the Great Satan wants to take America down — unless they are able to immigrate of course.

Former top U.S. officials urge stronger ties to the United Nations.  A wide array of former top U.S. officials have urged President-elect Barack Obama to make the United Nations a close partner in confronting global threats and environmental challenges.  Former Secretaries of State Madeleine Albright and Warren Christopher and former Defence Secretaries Harold Brown and William Perry were among the signers of the statement.

Obama Nominees Signal Radical Pro-U.N. Agenda.  [Scroll down]  [Ed] Rollins replied, in part:  "I think that's one of the greatest compliments to him, is that he's not afraid of smart, strong people around him."  This is what passes for media scrutiny of Obama's foreign policy picks.  In fact, there is much to question.  Two nominees in particular — Senator Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice — were close associates of Brookings Institution president Strobe Talbott, an advocate of world government who was named as a trusted contact of the Russian Intelligence service while he was in the Clinton Administration.

Arctic-Seabed Oil Claims May Quicken Under New Senate.  Democratic party gains in the U.S. Senate may speed approval of a maritime treaty that allows signatories to stake claims to Arctic seabed containing oil and gas deposits.  With President-elect Barack Obama supporting ratification of the Law of the Sea and Democrats unseating seven Republican senators in this month's elections, the U.S. moved a step closer to joining 157 nations including Russia that have endorsed the treaty, political analysts including the Century Foundation's Jeff Laurenti said.

Did someone mention the Law of the Sea Treaty?

If you don't know anything bad about the United Nations, you should visit this page.

Censoring conservative radio

Is Obama's New FCC Transition Head Talk Radio's 'Executioner'?  Brian Maloney at Radio Equalizer warns that Barack Obama is signaling his designs on conservative talk radio with the rumored appointment of former FCC Commissioner Henry Rivera as the head of his FCC transition team.

Liberal Censorship and Its Roots:  Democrats fully intend to reinstitute the Fairness Doctrine, a euphemistically named regulation aimed at shutting down conservative talk radio, which Sen. Chuck Schumer has compared to pornography.  Remember that conservatives have never advocated government action to suppress or censor the liberal media monopoly, which has existed for decades and still dominates mainstream media today.  Their answer was the alternative media.

Broadcast Blackout of Left's 'Fairness' Doctrine Push.  Barack Obama's transition team has tapped former FCC Commissioner Henry Rivera, a longtime proponent of the so-called "Fairness Doctrine," to head the team looking for the man or woman who will soon give Democrats a 3-to-2 advantage on the Federal Communications Commission.  It's another troubling sign that Democrats are serious about trying to reinstate the long-defunct FCC regulation, which can more aptly be described as the "Censorship Doctrine" because of its chilling effect on free speech.

The Unfairness Doctrine.  Broadcasters should act before they're forced to react if Congress brings the so-called Fairness Doctrine back from the dead.  The Fairness Doctrine, which should be called The Gag Rule, will effectively silence talk shows on broadcast stations and the millions of Americans who tune in and talk about what was talked about.

If you don't know much about the so-called Fairness Doctrine, you should visit this page.

Paying back the unions

This subsection is now located here.



Radical environmentalism

This subsection has moved to a new page.



Abortion

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Property seizures

Beware of Congress's Threat to Tax 401Ks.  With the bear market red in the claw, with an equal opportunity bear market taking out solid stocks right and left, with panicked investors feeling like every headline is an explosion, comes this impenetrable stupidity:  Some Democrats in Congress have held hearings that included discussions of new proposals to tax 401K money.  Specifically, the idea would be to eliminate most of the $80 billion in annual tax breaks that 401(k) investors receive. Which means a nearly $80 billion tax hike.

Targeting Your 401(k).  You may have heard about Argentina's plan to nationalize private retirement accounts.  Some Democrats on Capitol Hill are inspired, and with their big election victory they may get the chance to test Peronist ideas in America.

Killing 401(k)'s?  It's still more than two months before the Obama administration takes office, and we are already seeing signs of just how the Democrats intend to govern.  One proposal being floated by Congressional Democrats aims to abolish the tax incentives for individual 401(k) retirement plans.  With the recent financial meltdown having hit a lot of people's funds heavily, those lawmakers think that the time would be ripe to end the private system and fold it into an expansion of Social Security.

Socialized medicine

Obamacare is discussed on these pages:  [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

Packing the courts with liberal judges

Behind the blindfold.  The most distinctive characteristic of our president's legal thinking is the extent to which it reflects the leftist orthodoxy of the law schools in which he spent his formative years, including the assumption that the American legal tradition has been little more than a mechanism of oppression and white privilege.  In reading his speeches and comments over time, it is clear that he views the law not as a neutral set of rules to be presided over in umpire-like fashion by impartial judges, but as a form of historical affirmative action designed to right the wrongs of the past.  As such, his conception of jurisprudence begins and ends with the idea of the courts as agents of social change.

Obama's change will find its way to U.S. courthouses.  Experts say President-elect Obama could appoint as many as three Supreme Court justices in the next few years, as many as any president in two decades.  And with a newly solid Democratic majority in the Senate ready to confirm his nominations, Obama could also name scores of new judges to the lower courts ... .

Top 10 Things to Expect From Obama Court:  (# 10.)  Expanding and perpetuating the use of racial preferences … (# 6.)  Banning the death penalty … (# 4.)  Creating new constitutional rights to massive government welfare and medical care programs…

Questions for Obama:  Voting against the confirmation of Chief Justice John Roberts, [Obama] said:  Deciding "truly difficult cases" should involve "one's deepest values, one's core concerns, one's broader perspectives on how the world works, and the depth and breadth of one's empathy."  Is that not essentially how Chief Justice Roger Taney decided the Dred Scott case?

Obama's Constitution:  Obama, if elected, would certainly aim to fill the Supreme Court — and the lower federal courts — with liberal judicial activists.  Although Obama has served in the Senate for barely three years, he has already established a record on judicial nominations and constitutional law that comports with his 2007 ranking by the National Journal as the most liberal of all 100 senators.

Obama's Judges and the Senate:  After years of obstruction by Senate Democrats, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell offered President-elect Obama a roadmap for ending the political war over judicial nominations.  What Mr. Obama does in his early days in office will reveal a lot about the next four years.  The key, Mr. McConnell explained, is for the new President to govern as he campaigned — with an eye toward moderation.

Welcome to Obama's America:  the USSA.  The fringe groups on the left such as the ACLU and ACORN will now have legitimate standing with a government ready to dismantle our free enterprise system.  Sound far-fetched?  Not my words but from the mouth of Barack Obama, "there is a legal rationale for bringing about economic change through the courts."  This basically changes the courts from arbiters of the law into super-legislators.

Read more about activist judges.

Revenge and reversal

Democrats Look for Ways to Undo Late Bush Administration Rules.  Democrats are hoping to roll back a series of regulations issued late in the Bush administration that weaken environmental protections and other restrictions.  Potential targets include regulations allowing concealed weapons in some national parks and forbidding medical facilities that get federal money from discriminating against doctors and nurses who refuse, on religious grounds, to assist with abortions.

The Geithner Exception:  [Scroll down]  The just-issued Conyers report on "Reining in the Imperial Presidency" calls on the new Obama administration to "begin an independent criminal review (my emphasis) of activities of the outgoing administration, such as enhanced interrogation, extraordinary rendition, and domestic warrantless surveillance."  As prelude, the House last February voted contempt of Congress against Bush White House officials Josh Bolten and Harriet Miers and referred them for prosecution.

Pelosi Open to Prosecution of Bush Administration Officials.  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is receptive to the idea of prosecuting some Bush administration officials, while letting others who are accused of misdeeds leave office without prosecution, she told Chris Wallace in an interview on "FOX News Sunday."  "I think you look at each item and see what is a violation of the law and do we even have a right to ignore it," the California Democrat said.

Obama's Tax Trap.  President-elect Barack Obama may be about to make a big mistake:  raising taxes in the middle of a recession.  That's what his top political aide, David Axelrod, hinted Sunday:  The Bush tax cuts are "something that we plainly can't afford, moving forward," Axelrod said.  "Whether it expires, or whether we repeal it a little bit early, we'll determine later.  But it's going to go."

The Nancy, Harry and Office of the President-elect Show.  The Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Barack Hussein Obama triumvirate will be doing as much as possible to distract and demoralize the millions of Americans disenfranchised by last week's Election.  They've waited so long to come out with their show of control.  Tonight [11/13/2008] there's a developing story on Drudge that the Democrats are prepared to move forward with an investigation of the Bush Administration.

Obama reviewing drilling, stem cells.  US president-elect Barack Obama's transition chief has said the Democrat is reviewing President George W. Bush's executive orders and could change them once he takes office.  Oil drilling and stem cell research were among the areas Senator Obama was examining, as the Bush administration implements a series of last-minute orders during its final weeks in power, John Podesta told ABC today.

Obama Positioned to Quickly Reverse Bush Actions.  Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.

Racial quotas and reparations for slavery

The Prez-Elect's Quota Challenge.  Racial preferences are, after all, extremely unpopular with most Americans.  Voters in blue states like California, Washington and Michigan have banned them in referenda over the last decade or so.  Voters in red-state Nebraska just did the same thing, by a thumping 58-42 percent margin.  (A similar measure in purplish Colorado may pass as well; the votes are still being tallied.)

Obama:  Tilting at Racial Windmills.  Though neither the media nor the McCain campaign dared to challenge any of Obama's presumably sacrosanct pronouncements about racism in the justice system, the fact remains that every one of those pronouncements was an unadulterated falsehood.  Long ago, the injustices which Obama references certainly existed, particularly in the South.  But it hardly seems appropriate for a supposedly forward-looking President — who founded his entire campaign on a platform of "change" — to continue fighting yesteryear's battles again and again.

Obama's Stealth Reparations.  While he was an Illinois state senator, Barack Obama told a Chicago radio show host that he sought "major redistributive change" for the benefit of fellow blacks.  He was speaking in the context of the civil rights movement, and how it had fallen short of "economic justice."  Although John McCain and other Republicans are afraid to say it, his remarks can only be interpreted to mean one thing:  economic reparations for slavery.

Obama and the Drive for Slavery Reparations.  Barack Obama is the most radical candidate ever to stand at the precipice of acquiring his party's presidential nomination and the American presidency.  It is apparent that he is a member of an international socialist movement which hopes to use the United Nations as a vehicle to shake down U.S. taxpayers for trillions of dollars in slavery reparations.  One group, the African World Reparations and Repatriation Truth Commission, is demanding an astronomical $777 trillion.

Meet Obama's Reparations Model.  While some question the impact of preaching from the pulpit of Trinity United Church of Christ on Senator Obama's thinking, the influence of one of Trinity's most recommended authors on Obama is clear.  Three of Randall Robinson's books are available for purchase on Trinity's website.  One, entitled "The Debt:  What America Owes To Blacks," is particularly important to understanding Obama's notion of reparations.  So who is Randall Robinson?

Does Obama Favor Slavery "Reparations?"  Barrack Obama's pastor not only spews anti-American rhetoric from the pulpit but favors shaking down U.S. taxpayers for "reparations" for slavery.  The Reverend Dr. Jeremiah Wright was the keynote speaker at the 2007 annual conference of N'COBRA, which stands for the National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America.

Read more about reparations for slavery.

Higher taxes and massive spending

New Public Works Projects Must Employ American Workers.  The plan calls for still greater deficit spending in the hopes of jump-starting our sputtering economy and providing jobs for millions of unemployed Americans.  If we are going to spend billions, perhaps even trillions, of borrowed dollars to create public works jobs, an absolute prerequisite must be an insurance policy that the beneficiaries of the program are U.S. workers.

You're Not Serious?  There is no longer any need to play the class warfare card or gin up the liberal base.  But we are in a recession, unemployment is at a fourteen-year high, and the Fed can't find enough ways to shovel liquidity into the private sector.  And Obama still wants to hike taxes?

Obama's Math Doesn't Add Up.  Even economists who agree with Barack Obama that we need another stimulus are questioning his exuberant predictions that his spending plan will produce or save 3.7 million jobs.

Obama's Conflicting Goals.  President-elect Barack Obama's enormous stimulus package would be scary enough without learning the details.  To inject the same staggering amount of government-created or borrowed money into the economy as has already been spent or set aside for the government bailout when there's no proof it will jump-start our economy and no thought given to how we're going to recoup this money is madness.  But when you hear some of the uses he has for this money, it is way beyond madness.

Californians in Control.  The Obama transition team continues to talk to House and Senate Democratic leaders about trying to move a big ($850 billion?) economic stimulus package soon after the new Congress is sworn in.  Every special interest in the country is trying to stake a claim to a share of the cash, including promoters of "green jobs" and those that claim that transforming the energy economy to rely on much more costly forms of renewable energy would somehow stimulate the economy.

The 10 Dopiest Business and Economy Leaders of 2008:  [#9] Barack Obama.  If there is one piece of policy advice that economists agree on, it is this:  You don't raise taxes during an economic downturn.  Doing so would be right out of the Great Depression playbook.  Yet even as the economy obviously weakened in the latter half of the year, Obama stuck to his campaign pledge to reverse the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts on income and capital gains for wealthier Americans.

Economic Stimulus Amounts to Central Planning.  That there will be a huge "stimulus" package in the early days of the Obama administration is a certainty.  Nearly everyone thinks the government must do something drastic to, using President-elect Obama's word, "jolt" the economy into recovery.  That something is deficit spending on "infrastructure."  But it's not as simple as it sounds.  A big debate is shaping up over whether the program should concentrate on big, transformative projects or boring bridge repairs and pothole filling.

Bridges to Everywhere.  President-elect Obama's transition team is promising that its $700 billion, or $850 billion, or $1 trillion, or whatever it now is "stimulus" won't include pork-barrel spending.  They must not have talked to the nation's mayors, who recently responded to Mr. Obama's request to compile their priority list of "shovel-ready" projects.  By all accounts, the $73 billion wish list may be the largest collection of parochial spending projects in American history.

Paving Projects Won't Boost Economy.  President-elect Obama has announced plans for a new stimulus package containing $500 billion to $700 billion worth of public works projects. ... America's governors already are scrambling to compose lists of "shovel-ready" projects so no bridge or highway is left behind.

Obama's Secretary of Earmarks.  Barack Obama wasn't kidding about the audacity of hope.  In tapping Republican Illinois Congressman Ray LaHood to head the Transportation Department last week, he got more Beltway hosannas for bipartisanship.  At the same time he managed to choose one of the biggest spenders in Congress, of either party, and just the fellow to push $850 billion in "stimulus" out the door.  As a long-time and stalwart Member of the House Appropriations Committee, Mr. LaHood facilitated the incontinent spending that helped Republicans lose their majority in 2006.

You can bet on it:  Obama will raise your taxes.  Economists left and right have long argued that there is no way Obama can pay for a national health care makeover and a host of other expensive initiatives without breaking his campaign pledge not to raise taxes for anyone making less than $250,000.  The wealthy are already paying a grossly disproportionate percentage of federal income taxes, and increasing taxes on them won't raise enough money to meet Obama's needs.

Read more about taxes and the IRS.

See also Obama the Big Spender
and The Fast Track to Socialism.


Gun control

This subsection now resides on a new page.

Nationalizing and radicalizing the public schools

See this page.

Constantly expanding government

Role of Federal Tech Czar to Be Defined by Obama.  The most talked-about tech job in government is one that never before existed.  On the campaign trail, Barack Obama said he would appoint the nation's first chief technology officer who would, according to his Web site, help federal agencies use technology "to make government work better."  But he's given no specifics about the job, leaving the tech community to speculate about the role and who might fill it.

Obama may name auto czar.  President-elect Barack Obama has raised the idea of appointing a so-called "auto czar" to oversee emergency federal aid to automakers, exact tough corporate reforms and ensure taxpayers earn a return on any investment in the auto industry.

Obama's Czars:  Suddenly a rash of czars is in prospect for the Obama Administration.  The title "czar" in the executive branch has some history.  The "drug czar" title appeared during the Reagan administration.  The term has always seemed a little strange to me, but that's probably because the word has a negative connotation in my opinion; an all-powerful, micro-managing type of connotation.  What's more, after spending a little time participating in the "war on drugs", it seemed that the czar's effort was futile and cost a lot of money.

Obama Promises on Job Creation -- Including 600,000 New Government Employees.  In his radio address today, President-elect Obama uses some new language when discussing what he wants the stimulus package to achieve in terms of jobs.  First off, he has a name for the package -- the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan."

The federal government is too big already.

Totalitarianism / Ruling by Thugocracy

See this page.

Read more about the heavy-handed government goons we already have.

Weakening the military

Obama to re-instate the Draft.  Americans won't volunteer their lives in defense of Marxism.  People in the military now, will not re-up.  They didn't sign up to defend Marxism.  They signed up to defend freedom.  The nation just voted against freedom.

Barack Obama:  It is no longer important to kill Osama bin Laden.  Barack Obama last night suggested that removing Osama bin Laden from the battlefiell (sic) was no longer essential and that America's security goals could be achieved by merely keeping al-Qaeda "on the run".

Obama to end military's ban on homesexuals, spokesman says.  President Obama will end the 15-year-old "don't ask, don't tell" policy that has prevented homosexual and bisexual men and women from serving openly within the U.S. military, a spokesman for the president-elect said.

Challenges loom as Obama seeks space weapons ban.  President Barack Obama's pledge to seek a worldwide ban on weapons in space marks a dramatic shift in U.S. policy while posing the tricky issue of defining whether a satellite can be a weapon.

Dealing with Cuba

Is Obama planning adios for U.S. Cuban Embargo?  The U.S. president-elect is touted as President of the World and in global opinion, some 98.9 percent of the world opposes the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba as documented in United Nations statistics.  Before Obama even came into power, the European Union had agreed to lift its diplomatic sanctions against Cuba.  At the same time, Venezuela was working with Cuba to lay undersea Internet cable to bring more Cuban citizens onto the Information Highway.

Obama poised to change Cuba policy?  With the inauguration last week of Barack Obama, many Cuban-Americans are anticipating a change in policy toward their homeland that reflects both the new president's campaign promises and shifting views and demographics among a once-solid Republican political bloc.

U.S. turns off Havana news ticker that angered Cuba.  The United States has turned off a news ticker at its diplomatic mission in Havana that long had irritated the Cuban government, the U.S. State Department said on Monday, in another sign of efforts to improve relations with Cuba.  The five-foot-high (1.5-meter) news ticker ran across 25 windows on the outside of the fifth floor of the U.S. diplomatic mission's building on Havana's busy seaside Malecon drive.

Obama's Cuba Policy:  Speak Softly, Carry No Stick.  I had hoped that Obama might use his popularity with the international left to demythologize the dictatorship in Cuba and rally the world to the cause of freedom for that country's citizens.  Turning off the electronic news ticker billboard is just the latest sign that Obama has no such intentions.

Trying everything until something works

'No' to Obama's experimental government.  On Sunday night [11/15/2008], President-elect Barack Obama told CBS' "60 Minutes" that Franklin D. Roosevelt would be a model of sorts for him.  "What you see in FDR that I hope my team can emulate is not always getting it right, but projecting a sense of confidence, and a willingness to try things.  And experiment in order to get people working again."  This is a problematic standard.  What do you want in a surgeon?  One who "gets it right" or who projects "a sense of confidence?"  Ditto accountants, defense lawyers, mechanics and bomb-disposal technicians:  Cocky and self-assured, or gets it right?

Popularizing cigarettes

This subsection has moved here.



Lists of Obama's scandals

This subsection has moved to a page of its own, located here.



Operation Gun Runner / Operation Fast and Furious

This subsection has moved to a page of its own, located here.


Goldman Sachs and the Obama Administration

After Obsessing Over Enron, Media Mostly Ignore Obama-Goldman Sachs Connections.  President Obama has extensive ties to Goldman Sachs.  Yet even given record-breaking financial contributions and sketchy relationships between Goldman executives and Obama officials at the highest level, the mainstream media will not afford Obama the same scrutiny it gave to George W. Bush during the collapse of Enron.

Is Goldman Obama's Enron?  No, it's worse.  President Bush's connections to Enron were well-hyped during the company's accounting debacle that rippled through the economy. ... But the mere $151,722.42 (inflation adjusted) in contributions from Enron-affiliated executives, employees, and PACs to Bush hardly add up to Obama's $1,007,370.85 (inflation adjusted) from Goldman-affiliated executives and employees.  That's also not taking into account how much Goldman contributed to Obama cabinet member Hillary Clinton ($415,595.63 inflation adjusted), which was itself almost three times as much as Bush received as well.

White House Denies Meddling in Goldman Sachs Fraud Case.  The White House on Monday [4/19/2010] strongly denied any involvement in the timing of the high-profile fraud case against Goldman Sachs, after Republicans suggested Democrats were exploiting the charges to build the case for their financial regulatory overhaul.

Gangster Government and Goldman Sachs.  In the case of the Securities and Exchanges Commission complaint against Wall Street's top investment bank, Goldman Sachs, it's hard not to wonder if this isn't a classic case of Gangster Government in action.  There is a truly remarkable confluence of factors that indicate that the whole thing stinks to high heaven.

All the president's Goldman Sachs men.  While President Obama assails the culture of greed and recklessness practiced by the men of Goldman Sachs, his administration is infested with them.  The White House can no more disown Government Sachs than Da Boss-in-chief can disown Chicago politics.  Obama is headed to Wall Street on Thursday to demand "financial regulatory reform" — just as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed civil suit against Goldman Sachs for mortgage-related fraud.

A series of coincidences pointing to a possible conspiracy between the White House and the SEC.
SEC suit against Goldman Sachs provokes political firestorm.  Allegations the White House may have colluded with the Securities and Exchange Commission began unraveling soon after they were made in a bizarre sideshow to the financial overhaul saga.  Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican and ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, was winning few co-signers for his probe of whether the SEC's lawsuit against Goldman Sachs was politically timed to help President Obama.

Time for the Government to Start Playing Fair.  Fraud charges were filed against Goldman Sachs on Friday and the Obama administration is portraying the announcement as an attempt to bring greedy and corrupt Wall Street under control.  Yet, the timing of the case looks like more than coincidence with the Senate about to start debating President Obama's plan for financial regulation and with the president himself set to kick off his tour to push the bill on Thursday [4/22/2010].  The charges of fraud look more like the government changing the rules of the game than actual fraud occurring.

Miscellaneous warning forecasts
issued prior to Obama's inauguration

Poverty threatens entire generation, says Obama.  The president-elect, Barack Obama, has warned that the United States is sliding into the deepest economic crisis since World War II and urged Congress to pass a stimulus package quickly or risk an entire generation of Americans losing any hope of prosperity.

The Editor says...
What's this?  Suddenly, he's "no hope" Obama.  And he hasn't even been sworn in.

Obama Watch:  As the most liberal Senator and first African-American prepares to ascend to the presidency on January 20th, we believe that we are about to witness many events previously unimagined in America.  Some of these events have already begun to unfold in the ongoing economic crisis.  With all of the "change" that the Obama presidency promises to offer, it's incumbent upon conservatives to keep a close watch on what transpires, separate from the fawning and adoring drive-by media's predictably biased coverage.

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Updated February 23, 2016.

©2016 by Andrew K. Dart