Walker responds to Obama

Obama acted stupidly and spoke ignorantly:

Gov. Scott Walker on Monday afternoon responded to comments President Barack Obama made earlier in the day about the protests in Madison:

Walker’s office issued this statement:

“I’m sure the President knows that most federal employees do not have collective bargaining for wages and benefits while our plan allows it for base pay. And I’m sure the President knows that the average federal worker pays twice as much for health insurance as what we are asking for in Wisconsin. At least I would hope he knows these facts.

“Furthermore, I’m sure the President knows that we have repeatedly praised the more than 300,000 government workers who come to work every day in Wisconsin.

“I’m sure that President Obama simply misunderstands the issues in Wisconsin, and isn’t acting like the union bosses in saying one thing and doing another.”

Public unions are unnecessary

Mark McKinnon in The Daily Beast:

The primary purpose of private-sector unions today is to get workers a larger share of the profits they helped create. But with a power greater than their numbers, these unions have destroyed the manufacturing sector, forcing jobs overseas by driving labor costs above the price consumers here will pay. The government is a monopoly and it earns no profits to be shared. Public employees are already protected by statutes that preclude arbitrary hiring and firing decisions.

The primary purpose of public unions today, as ugly as it sounds, is to work against the financial interests of taxpayers: the more public employees are paid in wages and uncapped benefits, the less taxpayers keep of the money they earn. It’s time to call an end to the privileged class.

Quote of the Day

“Public-employee unions are a mechanism by which every taxpayer is forced to fund the Democratic Party.” – Michael Barone

via End Unions and End the Privileged Class (a must read)

Heh.

South Korea Prods North by Dropping Leaflets Telling of Mideast Protests

South Korea’s military has dropped leaflets on North Korea that tell of pro-democracy revolts in the Middle East with the intention of provoking a movement against Kim Jong Il’s regime, a South Korean lawmaker said.

The leaflets detail popular uprisings that toppled Egypt’s government and sparked a bloody crackdown in Libya, explaining that “a dictatorial regime is destined to collapse,” Song Yong Sun, a member of the National Assembly’s defense committee, said in an e-mailed statement today. The leaflets travel in balloons that distribute their cargo when they burst, according to her office….

South Korea has also started sending rice, clothing, medicines and radios in baskets tied to balloons this month for the first time in 11 years, Song said.

South Korea remains technically at war with North Korea since their 1950-53 conflict ended in a cease-fire.

It must be lonely in North Korea….

Now that you’ve had your tantrum, come back to work…

Hot Air: Walker gives 24-hour deadline to fleebaggers

If the Wisconsin state Senators who fled the state intended on highlighting their opposition to Scott Walker’s budget-repair bill, then the governor offered his congratulations on their success. In his statement this morning, though, Walker also told the fleebaggers that any further delay would cost the state $165 million in a lost opportunity to restructure the state’s debt — and that continued delay will force Walker to cut jobs to save money…

Too bad Walker can’t treat these elected officials like Reagan did the air-traffic controllers….

Screw you lowly Americans, your President

These people are about a tone deaf and “set-an-example” ignorant as they come: Obama’s jetset fitness trainer helps shed pounds, adds to global warming

With a schedule as hectic as President Obama’s it must be hard to stick to a training regimen without help — but why does he insist on having his old trainer fly out from Chicago to D.C. regularly when Obama and his wife exhort the rest of us to drive less? And in a recession…?

David Axelrod says he lost 25 pounds under McClellan’s watch, but that comes at a steep cost for those as environmentally minded as the Obamas: 50,000 lbs of carbon emissions. That’s how much carbon emissions are involved in McClellan’s flying back and forth every week for a year.

Even if Obama were to put his money where his mouth is and purchase offsets for McClellan’s Chicago-to-D.C. commute, the message is pretty clear: If you’re an average federal employee or your everyday taxpayer, stop driving and be careful of your carbon footprint. If you’re in the White House and you want some toned arms and a firm buttocks, fly your trainer out from Chicago every week.

It’s good to be the King…

Is Obama our new little Swiss Miss?

It is good to read Christopher Hitchens again: Arab uprisings: Obama’s response was dithering and pathetic

The Obama administration also behaves as if the weight of the United States in world affairs is approximately the same as that of Switzerland. We await developments. We urge caution, even restraint. We hope for the formation of an international consensus. And, just as there is something despicable about the way in which Swiss bankers change horses, so there is something contemptible about the way in which Washington has been affecting—and perhaps helping to bring about—American impotence. Except that, whereas at least the Swiss have the excuse of cynicism, American policy manages to be both cynical and naive…

By the time of Obama’s empty speech, even the notoriously lenient Arab League had suspended Libya’s participation, and several of Qaddafi’s senior diplomatic envoys had bravely defected. One of them, based in New York, had warned of the use of warplanes against civilians and called for a “no-fly zone.” Others have pointed out the planes that are bringing fresh mercenaries to Qaddafi’s side. In the Mediterranean, the United States maintains its Sixth Fleet, which could ground Qaddafi’s air force without breaking a sweat. But wait! We have not yet heard from the Swiss admiralty, without whose input it would surely be imprudent to proceed.

Evidently a little sensitive to the related charges of being a) taken yet again completely by surprise, b) apparently without a policy of its own, and c) morally neuter, the Obama administration contrived to come up with an argument that maximized every form of feebleness. Were we to have taken a more robust or discernible position, it was argued, our diplomatic staff in Libya might have been endangered. In other words, we decided to behave as if they were already hostages!

Another reason to return Iran to its people

Breaking: Iran Has Several Military Bases in Libya

In an interview today on the Al Arabyia news network, an informed source within the Revolutionary Guards Corps revealed that Iran has several military bases in Libya.

The source, who requested anonymity due to his sensitive position within the Guards, elaborated further that the Iranian military bases are located mostly along Libya’s borders with the African countries of Chad and Niger. From there, he said, the Guards actively smuggle arms and supply logistical assistance to rebellious groups in the African countries…

According to this source, the military collaborations between the Revolutionary Guards and the Gaddafi government date back to 2006.

It is important to note that Nigerian officials recently confiscated an Iranian arms shipment destined for Gambia. The weapons included mortars, rockets, and shells for anti-aircraft guns and were hidden in containers marked building materials. Nigerian officials have accused a suspected member of the Guards and a Nigerian of illegally importing arms and have set the trial for later this year.

Their presence in Iraq and Afghanistan would have compelled most to take the war Iran is fighting against us seriously. But nooooo…….

Weekend Entertainment

HOPE® or CHANGE®? I’m confused…

US vs China – US Will Be the World’s Third Largest Economy

Oh, CHANGE® I get it…. Thanks Barry!

Quote of the Day

“Imagine that Governor Palin had become president. Imagine that she had announced that Roe versus Wade in her view was unconstitutional and therefore the United States government would no longer protect anyone’s right to have an abortion because she personally had decided it should be changed. The news media would have gone crazy. The New York Times would have demanded her impeachment.”

[...]

“First of all, he campaigned in favor of [the law]. He is breaking his word to the American people,”…

“Second, he swore an oath on the Bible to become president that he would uphold the Constitution and enforce the laws of the United States. He is not a one-person Supreme Court. The idea that we now have the rule of Obama instead of the rule of law should frighten everybody.

“The fact that the left likes the policy is allowing them to ignore the fact that this is a very unconstitutional act,”….

[...]

“I believe the House Republicans next week should pass a resolution instructing the president to enforce the law and to obey his own constitutional oath, and they should say if he fails to do so that they will zero out [defund] the office of attorney general and take other steps as necessary until the president agrees to do his job.

“His job is to enforce the rule of law and for us to start replacing the rule of law with the rule of Obama is a very dangerous precedent.

“Clearly it is a dereliction of duty and a violation of his constitutional oath and is something that cannot be allowed to stand.”

…“I don’t think these guys set out to create a constitutional crisis. I think they set out to pay off their allies in the gay community and to do something that they thought was clever. I think they didn’t understand the implication that having a president personally suspend a law is clearly unconstitutional.”

I have to admit it, Gingrich is right more than he’s wrong.

Incompetence, Thy Name Is Obama

There is nothing more that can be added to this from The Jawa Report:

We have a whole fleet of Navy ships in the Mediterranean Sea. Let me say that again. A whole fleet.

What does the administration send to rescue Americans currently trapped in Libya? A ferry that’s too small.

The U.S. government came under fire today for chartering a rescue boat for Americans stuck in Libya that is too small to cope with the rough Mediterranean sea.

Let me reiterate that we have an entire fleet of Navy ships in the Mediterranean Sea. And Obama will not order them in to evacuate Americans.

H/T Gateway Pundit

Update by SH: Hell, White House can’t even spell Libya right:

Obama votes ‘present’ while Americans are in danger

Americans left to take the ferry from war-torn Libya

Right now, in Libya, there are hundreds of Americans waiting for evacuation … by ferry.

Seriously. The State Department has chartered a ferry to take the hundreds of waiting Americans to Malta. But rough seas have delayed the ferry’s departure until Friday.

So where is our military and why aren’t they involved in the evacuation of Americans threatened by the violence in Libya?

Quote of the Day

The Discovery Channel would do well to hire Secretary Rumsfeld for a very special episode of “Mythbusters,” as Candy Crowley of CNN recently learned the hard way. Secretary Rumsfeld is busting tail to promote his book, Known and Unknown, A Memoir and Sunday’s stop on the whirlwind tour of interviews and media appearances was an interview with Crowley. By the way, Donald Rumsfeld is busting tail so hard because, being the evil Republican that he is, all proceeds will go to aid military families. Unlike the proceeds of then Senator Obama’s books; like most Lefties, Obama believes that charity begins at home, only in your home. Not in my backyard and not in my wallet! Plus, have you seen the price of arugala? Sheesh! – Lori Ziganto

via CNN’s Crowley Learns That Secretary Rumsfeld Is Also A Myth Buster

This Day in History

The US Olympic hockey team defeated Finland to win the gold medal at Lake Placid in 1980.

The ground war portion of Desert Storm began in 1991.

via February 24 — Infoplease.com