I’ve always thought that I was a crotchity old man at heart. It explains how I’ve always been politically conservative, throwing the old Churchill attributed adage about age and evolution of thought right out the window as soon as I was old enough to know who the old stalwart was. I just never felt that a lack of personal responsibility, which is what a typical twenty year old’s idea of liberalism practically equates to, was cool. These days I’m feeling the same way about the public at large. There isn’t so much a groundswell of support for the so-called stimulus package so much as an eerie apathy to the systematic dismantling of the American capitalist system. Apathy was never where it was at. I’d rather be tuned-in and angry than drifting and delighted. I said the same thing during the Bush years. I’d rather have liberals paying attention and annoyed than spending the entirety of their news hour clicking on MTV.com.

Apparently Barack Obama isn’t too familiar with Churchill either as he’s thrown away another symbolic vestige of the Bush era by shipping back a bust of the World War II leader that was on loan by the Brits, who had offered to let it remain. I don’t know how to analyze this. Is it a shot against Bush since it was prominently displayed during his term? Is it a denouncement of Churchill’s wartime ideology? Is it more simply discarding a painful reminder of British colonial rule? For all the disastrous decisions Obama has made so far, and there are many, he hasn’t completely shown himself as the liberal foreign policy dove some of us feared him to be.

I don’t have a problem with people supporting Obama. What I am concerned about is how accepting the people seem to be with our Congress passing a TRILLION dollars in new spending without any of them having read it. Without any of us having been able to read it. Obama has already blown through one of his campaign promises to bring sunshine back to the political process and yet there is no outrage from his supporters.

A liberal minded friend of mine recently commented on how he was upset that the Republicans were being ‘obstructionist’. He was concerned that the Republicans weren’t open to trying someone else’s ideas. The problem with that line of thinking is that the Republicans were kept entirely out of the legislative writing process by the Democrats. This tactic was endorsed by Obama, whose idea of bipartisanship is having some commentators who disagree with him over for drinks before completely ignoring them. After being kept in the dark and forbidden from giving any input in the crafting of the bill, the Democrats expected the Republicans in the House to vote in favor of something that ended up being completely opposite their ideological gut instincts. If we’re meant to work together, how can you explain tactics like that? If we’re to put aside our differences, how can you lock roughly half the country out of the decision making process and expect is to come together?

It isn’t about trying someone else’s ideas. It’s about being railroaded and expected to keep a big smile on our face while it happens. The irony that Rush Limbaugh, someone whose critics have most likely never even listened to beyond ideologically friendly website provided soundbytes, proposed the most fair bipartisan idea shouldn’t be lost on anyone who is still in awe of his high lord Obama. Unfortunately for our country, most of those who would support the bill primarily to ‘try new ideas’ won’t really do much digging to see how the sausage is made, so to speak. They’ll continue to let the administration friendly media tell them what’s important. More bitter irony from those who claim conservatives are FOX drones. No worries, they won’t even have the option of dissent (the highest form of patriotism, remember?) before too long. You won’t have to wonder if the conservatives, republicans, democrats or liberals are lying to you because the former won’t be allowed on the airwaves. And then what will be next?

What it all boils down to is this: we’re being slowly crushed into government dependence in this country. Don’t take my word for it, do some digging while we’re still allowed to argue over it.

It was old hat long ago on the conservative side of the blogosphere to call Barack Obama a communist but apparently the translation to the mainstream media takes a while. Glen Beck has picked up on the moniker, creating a publicity ploy for his new show on Fox that I’ll gladly fall for hook, line, and sinker. I’ve only caught a few episodes but anyone who has Penn Jillette on regularly deserves to be watched. I think that I’ll have to start making more room on my DVR.

Glen isn’t the only person in the media who is starting to slide the comparisons in. Jim Cramer has been spotted peeking out of his hole and he saw Lenin in Obama, which means that we can expect six more weeks of economic SNAFU on capital hill.

“Thank heavens for the Chinese communists, deeply rooted in a profit government,” Cramer said. “Because we have decided that profits have no place in the system.”

Cramer wasn’t sure what phase of the teaching of Lenin the United States was heading, but he narrowed it down to two.

“It’s the time for nationalization, and I’ll say this,” Cramer said. “Either the new economic policy Lenin, or it’s the initial storm-the-winter palace Lenin. I’m not quite sure yet. It’s a mid-’20s situation. It could go either way.”

All that prophecy being revealed, the bourgeoisie Republicans in the Senate are getting a taste of what it’s like to be in the favor of the one. (h/t Hot Air)

Mr. Obama called Ms. Collins and Mr. Specter, as well as Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, another Republican expected to support the deal, to acknowledge they were acting against pressure from their party and, one official said, to thank them for their patriotism in helping advance the bill at a critical time.

The irony would be delicious if we weren’t all going to soon be financially choking on it. Joe Biden blurts out during the campaign this gem about how the patriotic thing to do is to pony up at the tax table, but the foundation of professor Obama’s economic miracle cure-all tonic is built on doling out spending money to the Americans who don’t actually contribute anything to the system.

In a key concession to Democrats, 35 million families who make at least $3,000 but don’t pay taxes would get $300 rebates.

Will all this be in the final bill? Who knows, we haven’t seen it.

Here’s to hope and change!

Remember when Obama wouldn’t pipe up during the Israeli conflict prior to taking office? How he couldn’t be forced to make even a peep about the tough issues while George Bush was still in office? How he kept mum about the specifics of the economy until the last minute? He was such a good sport that he didn’t want to step on any toes when it came to Georgia? Oh wait, he was just holding high level talks with rogue states during the campaign.

US President Barack Obama has already used experts within the last few months to hold high-level but discreet talks with both Iran and Syria, organizers of the meetings told AFP.

…

However, even before winning the November 4 election, Obama unofficially used what experts call “track two” discussions to approach America’s two foes in the region.

Nuclear non-proliferation experts had several “very, very high-level” contacts in the last few months with Iranian leaders, said Jeffrey Boutwell, executive director for the US branch of the Pugwash group, an international organization of scientists which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1995.

Former defense secretary William Perry, who served in Obama’s election campaign, participated in some of these meetings focused on “a wide range of issues that separate Iran from the West: not only their nuclear program but the Middle East peace process, Persian Gulf issues,” Boutwell told AFP.

The Pugwash official declined to name the other participants, except to say they had considerable clout.

“We had very, very senior figures from both the Iranian policy establishment and from the US; people who have very close, good access to the top leaders in both countries,” Boutwell said.

Remember that direct talks without precondition were a mild controversy during the campaign. Obama, and by extension the greater left-wing, assured us that they would lead to productive dialogue and rainbow tea parties. Remember that the root of all our troubles in the Middle East stem from America refusing to talk to Muslim nations and Israel refusing to not exist.

So how effective are talks with Iran now that we’re engaged in them?

The proof is ultimately in the result. If this administration will do anything, it will allow us to prove that many of the negative assertions that we hold about the left’s policies are not just straw man arguments. Silver lining while we go down in flames. Obama’s diplomatic offensive has already proved to be a failure. If the Iranians were truly interested in progress or the slightest bit impressed with the chutzpah it took to run shadow-foreign policy before even taking office, they wouldn’t be saying this right out of the gate, would they?

“This request means Western ideology has become passive, that capitalist thought and the system of domination have failed,” Gholam Hossein Elham was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency.

“Negotiation is secondary, the main issue is that there is no way but for (the United States) to change,” he added.

It sounds like they have been talking a lot. Finding out what they have in common. Obama doesn’t seem too confident in the capitalist free market himself given that he’s attempting to systematically demolish it in the name of economic socialism salvation. I can hear it now: we enjoy long walks on the beach, controlled markets… it’s a regular telephone romance, only unlike normal relationships only one partner wants to kill the other. Maybe we’ll all get together after they have another chat till dawn and sing kumbaya. Yeah, and maybe Saddam actually used to get 99% of the vote in Iraq.

Allah at Hot Air examines how this revelation has actually caused stagnation in the Middle East.

Sister Toldjah is just as amused at Obama’s sudden pre-ascension interests.

Apparently I was the only person slightly impressed with the Messiah’s inaugural address. In my defense, I’ve long since stopped looking for any real content in his speeches so imagine my chagrin when pundits around the world began berating our newly crowned lord because he didn’t offer anything more than usual. Call me crazy but as far as paper-mâché speech writing goes, I thought that it was a pretty decently delivered pinata of platitudes. Hope and change. Coming together. Did he intend to follow through on any of it? Of course not. This campaign was never about results, it was about feeling good in the moment.

I actually watched the inauguration in a room full of liberals and while the initial oath received a large round of applause, the speech was met with poor reviews. Many left the room during it and when one die-hard tried to start another round after he wrapped it up, it only fell on deaf ears. I think that a lot of them were confused. I truly can’t know what the Obamaites were expecting from the man, but it definitely wasn’t what they got. The sky didn’t open; the ATMs didn’t start spewing cash. The delivery seemed the same to me as what we saw during the campaign despite what some apologists are terming a purposefully dull performance to help parse expectations. (Yeah, sure.)

I think it was just the first stage of Bush withdrawal.

I don’t want anyone to think that I’ve stopped feasting on the hearts of the innocent or embraced change, but our new President just gave a pretty good speech. Sure, it’s his strong suit, but give credit where credit is due. Also, he thanked George W. Bush for his service, which actually received applause, albeit grudging. Quite an impressive display. I’m glad to see it went off without a hitch. Let’s see where he goes from here.

I don’t know about you but given how hysterical the coverage of our current economic condition has become, I was at a loss for words as to how we could effective counter the nanny-staters in a way that the public could easily rally around. It’s all about the bailout, pull it from the public coffers and put it in my pocket, but thanks to Larry Flint of all people (using the term loosely) we can rest at ease.

“The take here is that everyone and their mother want to be bailed out from the banks to the big three,” said Owen Moogan, spokesman for Larry Flynt. “The porn industry has been hurt by the downturn like everyone else and they are going to ask for the $5 billion. Is it the most serious thing in the world? Is it going to make the lives of Americans better if it happens? It is not for them to determine.”

Francis said in a statement that “the US government should actively support the adult industry’s survival and growth, just as it feels the need to support any other industry cherished by the American people.”

Surely everyone will be able to see now that the term slippery slope isn’t just a logical fallacy. How much more insane do we need to get than a smut bailout before the country understands that cranking up the printing press just isn’t the answer?

We’ll gladly let the auto companies come to Washington DC with their hand out, so long as they’re willing to use their product to get there. It begs the question: what will we require the porn industry to ride to Washington in order to get their federal bailout?

Massive linkages at Michelle Malkin and Hot Air. Good for a yuk.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas despite the much-hyped catastrophe we’re still calling an economy. I came out pretty well, as cold-hearted conservatives often do, managing to steal some rather succulent candy from a baby as well as cashing in on my illicit oil contracts well before the bottom fell out of the market. Speaking of which, when can we expect our personal bailout checks to arrive– is it January 20th or do we have to wait till the 21st? I don’t want to cramp our Messiah’s style when he gets into office, but I’d like my share of “hope” before too long. I’d hate to get behind on the mortgages of my seven homes.

Actually, it might be a good thing. Then he can just pick up the tab on those as well. If we’re no longer kicking people out during the holiday season, who’s to say that it’s any less cruel to kick me to to the curb with St. Patrick’s Day right around the corner?

Here’s hoping your resolution isn’t to stop drinking.