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Over and Over It’s Almost Over

Big Frick — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 02:34:27 +0000

It’s almost over.

The billboards. The TV commercials. The radio spots. The debates. The interviews. The handshakes. The photo ops. The auto-dialed phone calls. The full page ads. The political action committees. The rallies. The speeches. The political pundits along with their up to the minute opinion polls replete with graphs and charts. It’s all almost over.

With just about 24 hours left before the midterm election of 2010 it is a far different political landscape then it was just a short two years ago. Hope and Change have been replaced by the harsh reality of what those two innocuous transitive verbs really mean.

There has indeed been plenty of Change. And the Change that has transpired has begot many emotions. None of them even remotely resembling Hope.

Two years ago many of the self-proclaimed independent thinkers raced headlong into the polls to cast their vote for a fresh faced junior Senator from Illinois that said almost nothing, but said it in such an eloquent manner that almost nobody bothered to ask what any of his obfuscated rhetoric meant. But now just two short years into this Messiah’s four year term many of those same proud independents have come to the realization that talk is just about the only thing that has been cheap these first two years. The rest has been very expensive indeed.

It has been an election season rife with wild accusations of witchcraft and sexual misconduct. Of Aqua Buddha and illegal alien housekeepers. Of secret donations and not so secret strong arm tactics. The voting public has been made aware of just about every word ever written and every phrase ever uttered by both political veterans and newcomers alike. All this while most of the focus has been on the failed policies of a president that still hasn’t produced a valid copy of a birth certificate or allowed the review of even a single college paper.

The entire election process has been uglier than a Hillary Clinton pants suit and harder than Barney Frank at a Boy Scout jamboree. But what seems to have already lasted an eternity will be over very soon.

And for all the deep digging that has been done into the past actions and policies of those hopeful to make Washington DC their mailing address for the next few years the most important question is the one that has remained unasked. Lost in the circus of personal attacks and carefully phrased and spun repudiations is the only real reason to vote in this election.

Are you happier today than you were two years ago? Do you feel safer? Do you feel more confident in the country’s direction? Forget about the broken promises. Are you happy with the ones that have been fulfilled? Is your job more secure? Is your bank account in better shape? Is your future brighter?

If you can honestly answer yes to the above posed questions, or at least to most of them, then my honest suggestion is that you vote for more of the same and pull that voting booth lever for the Democrat. But if, like me, you are more scared today having seen the reality of what can happen when a neophyte community activist gains control over both Houses of Congress who are literally willing to sell the very soul of this country and those of our children and our children’s children to the economic devil of unsustainable debt and unbridled government spending then you have a chance to make it stop.

Forget about who is right with “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” and focus on Asking the right question and Telling the Democrat controlled brain trust in congress your answer with your vote. Is this the direction our country should be headed? If it is than I guess the national celebration of Hope should have continued through the entirety of the past two years.

But it hasn’t.

Maybe that’s proof it’s time for the Change.

Clueless Joe

Big Frick — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 02:45:02 +0000

Well, that makes it pretty simple.

Pundits are debating a litany of causes for the deep angst and anger being displayed in the current voter polling data. Voters are mad as hell and while even the most liberal minded of the so called experts accept the anger, they differ on their opinions of the root-cause for it.

The list of possibilities is pretty long. From ObamaCare to the economy. From jobs (or the lack thereof) to the mishandling of the gushing oil well in the Gulf. From casualties in Afghanistan to gays in the military. From outrageous and unsustainable government spending to pending cap and trade legislation. And on and on and on.

Suffice it to say that voters are livid and there are plenty of possible reasons for it.

But Barack Obama’s right hand man, the man who’s breath has the ever-present scent of shoe polish, has it all figured out. The reason Americans are furious, according VP Joe “Foot-In-Mouth” Biden, is that we just don’t understand. Plain and simple, America you just don’t get it.

Biden is just coming off his latest round of contemptibly attempted damage control where he not only stated emphatically that the trillion dollar non-stimulating stimulus spending has created several million jobs (or was it ten million, or was it a gazillion), but he did it with a straight face. Like most Americans after hearing his prevarication regarding the number of jobs supposedly created by this mistake to the trillionth power, in an economy that is shedding jobs faster than Nancy Pelosi molting in the spring, I kept waiting for the punch line. But when he was done it dawned on all of us that, Holy Crap!!! He seriously believes we are going to buy this.

And that dear readers, is going to be the focus of the upcoming election season. If the facts don’t match the hype, ignore the facts and switch the blame.

It’s not that the Democrats have lost all sense of reason and responsibility. It’s not that the tried and true standards by which the economy is rated are indicating complete and total failure on a plan that never had a chance in hell of working. It’s not that the Democrat leadership in the House, the Senate and the White House have no clue as to what they are doing. No. That’s not the problem. The problem is that all of us left holding the unpayable bills racked up by this inept community organizer and his band of economic neophytes just don’t understand how truly smart these guys really are.

"These are gigantic packages to deal with a gigantic problem we inherited," Biden said "I don’t think they (the American people) know the detail of what’s going on…"

They presented the country with a 647 page supposed stimulus bill that spent $1 trillion. With the accompanying legislation, pork barrel amendments and earmarks the bill was over 2000 pages. They presented the country with the ObamaCare package. Another $1 trillion in spending buried amongst the 1990 pages of lost healthcare choices, tax increases and union giveaways. While the taxes for this debacle start now the supposed coverage starts to kick in sometime in 2014.

But you’re wrong Joe. Even with the 4000 plus pages you have created to misdirect us, Americans understand what you’ve done. We may not understand how the healthcare bill that couldn’t pass on its own merits became law anyway through the reprehensible use of cloture, but we do understand the damage you’ve done. And we also understand how to put a stop to it.

November is trundling down the road. As November 2^nd, the day of the midterm election, draws near we will hear more and more of how clueless the voters are. It’s up to us to prove Big Joe wrong or to prove him right.

For me, the prospect of Change has never inspired more Hope.

Bye Bayh

Big Frick — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 20:27:59 +0000

What a difference a year makes.

Think back just 12 short months ago when the new popinjay Messiah was just installed into the oval office and Democrats were preparing for their one thousand year Reich. Nancy Pelosi was all-powerful in the House and Harry Reid was running the show on the Senate side. It was a dream team made in liberal heaven and after years of subjugation the Dem’s were going to show those mean old Republicans how a country is supposed to be run.

Now, skip forward one year and several trillion dollars later and look at the results of this liberal brain trust. The only graphs showing an increase are the ones detailing the national debt and unemployment. The filibuster-proof Congress has been incapable of passing any meaningful legislation other than massive spending bills like the near trillion dollar non-stimulating stimulus package and the front man in the White House of Hope and Change has been unable to fill the leadership positions of some of the most important governmental departments like the Transportation Safety Administration and the National Border Protection Agency.

And just when things were looking their bleakest for the Democrats, having just lost the most important battle to date in the defeat of the bloated and unworkable ObamaCare healthcare package, long time Democrat Senator from Indiana Evan Bayh announces his refusal to run for reelection.

And Bayh not only quit. He quit with a vengeance.

Bayh notified Barack Obama of his intent to quit and remained unwavering in his decision even after some good old fashioned arm twisting and cajoling by the president and his Chicago hit man qua Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. In a blatantly obvious snub, Bayh did not notify his Senate Leader Harry Reid prior to his public announcement. Further, in what can only be seen as intentional sabotage toward the Democrat Party, Bayh held off his announcement until just 24 hours before the deadline to submit petitions for a ballot spot. At the time of his announcement there was only one other Democrat candidate collecting signatures, a woman named Tamyra D’Ippolito, who owns a small roadside diner. D’Ippolito was just 1000 signatures short of gaining a spot on the ballot. She has since failed leaving the spot open for a Democrat Committee appointee to fill in.

Bayh made clear his reasoning behind the blockbuster announcement ending his 10 plus year run as Senator; the partisanship under the Democrat leadership of Congress makes it impossible to get anything done. “There is too much partisanship and not enough progress – too much ideology and not enough practical problem solving” he said. He went on to say that his decision should not be taken as a slam against Obama saying he believed the president’s agenda is “the right agenda for America”. Democrats were quick to portray this as tacit support for Obama. The fact is it was just another swipe at the feckless left-wing Democrat leadership currently running Congress. Bayh isn’t intent on hurting Obama, who isn’t up for reelection this November, but he certainly doesn’t intend to lend support to any of the congressional Democrats who are.

What Bayh is saying by his resignation and in his explanation is that even with the overwhelming popularity that swept Barack Obama from an obscure community activist into the seat of ultimate power, Democrats are too dysfunctional to enact policies that benefit anybody other than themselves. Trillions have been spent on pure pork projects and an entire year has been spent bribing congressional leaders to vote for an unworkable healthcare package, all to no avail. He is embarrassed to be part of it and he wants out.

While the president was quick to praise Bayh for his past service the White House’s official statement was terse and demeaning, claiming Bayh was “by nature a governor not a senator.” It is exactly that insulting elitist attitude that has Evan Bayh heading for the hills along with a passel of other long time Democrat Senators and House members.

Did Evan Bayh walk away from an assured reelection as senator for the possibility of a future run as president? Maybe so. Or maybe he believes the old adage that says “if you sleep with dogs you wake up with fleas”.

Perhaps Evan Bayh just got tired of scratching.

Pointing Fingers

Big Frick — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:27:20 +0000

Yea, but he started it.

The childish antics of our elected officials continue. Republicans are being accused of maliciously blocking proposals by Democrats, Democrats are locking out Republicans from key negotiations and the president, who only spent enough time in the Hallowed Halls of Congress to have a cup of coffee, is clueless as to how to get anything done using the standard mechanisms in place in both Houses.

It has become obvious that this president’s first year, rapt in historic encomium and bolstered by a wave of nebulous hyperbole, was as good as it is going to get for this administration of Hope and Change and Inexperience.

Entering the oval office with a filibuster-proof majority in both Houses, Barack Obama looked to inflict his vision for America onto the voters that swept him into power. But Hope and Change means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. It was the audacity of ambiguity that got him elected and it is that same audaciousness that is now causing many of his once-adoring supporters to turn against him. Even those Democrats who appeared to be unshakable in their support for this new Messiah are looking for ways to distance themselves and save their political skin to fight another day. The collapse of the once all but certain ObamaCare bill proves that the stalemate stymie currently paralyzing Congress can be traced directly back to the inept leadership coming from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

And just like a schoolyard fracas when the teacher shows up the bully who started the whole thing is all too eager to point his finger and claim victimization.

Barack Obama began his term as president with less legislative experience than most congressional interns. He had a totally new agenda in mind for the country which included some lofty goals and a supercilious socialist ilk. Quite frankly, had the country not been in such desperate need of an experienced leader who could focus his attention on the economic woes we faced, much of his exalted schema would have passed through congress with very little successful opposition. With his iron fisted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and condescending Senate Leader Harry Reid, Obama’s first major legislative act was a near trillion dollar stimulus package that was 99% earmarked payback pork. Next up was to be the complete destruction of the healthcare system as we know it to be replaced by the ObamaCare system of reduced choice and mandatory participation. Much like the non-stimulating stimulus package the Democrats needed no Republican votes to get this monstrosity passed, so Republicans were locked out of the process both literally and figuratively.

Because this community activist qua president lost sight of America’s priorities for the sake of his own, the support he once enjoyed both inside the beltway and beyond began to dwindle. And as the polls go so goes the support of the elected elite whose continuing employment depends upon public sentiment. With the impending mid-term election coming Obama tried his best to ram through an unworkably expensive and graft laden healthcare bill that made nobody happy. Following the directions of his Chicago machine politics advisors he used muscle instead of mediation. And as a result he not only lost the battle but a number of defectors amongst the ranks of his once faithful as well.

Now, instead of learning from his mistakes in both principle and process, Obama is satisfied to make yet another political grandstand play and call the Republicans to a special televised meeting where he hopes to portray his new commitment to bipartisan participation. The reason for this newfound love of live television is so he can ratchet up the blame game and call the now filibuster-able Republicans to task for what he and his remaining Democrat minions will depict as obstructionism.

The Republicans, who are still smarting from a year of complete legislative domination, are in no mood to lose their newly attained political momentum and will likely not give an inch to this neophyte negotiator.

It will all make for good television and even better political pundit fodder. But it will not make for a productive legislative session unless the focus turns to real solutions for the ailing economy, the painful unemployment rates and the unsustainable national debt.

As Democrats, Republicans and this quickly fading presidential phenom point fingers at each other the public will continue to become more disenchanted with the entire lot.

And in November many of those looking to extend their congressional stay will not like the finger we use to point back.

I Got The “Whatever Happend To’s”

Big Frick — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 02:45:33 +0000

I was just sitting back reminiscing some of the top stories of the past year or so and I got a case of the “What ever happened to’s”.

Like what ever happened to all the congressional hearings we were supposed to have investigating the price gouging being carried out by the major oil refiners and gasoline companies.

The Democrats marched the CEO’s of these companies before their committee and accused them of everything from price fixing to treason. Our favorite California Congresswoman Maxine Waters even threatened to have these private companies socialized (she meant nationalized, but the slip of the tongue was classic Freudian). Could it be that Congress decided not to allow the American public to study the fact that the federal tax on gasoline is twice the percentage of the refiner’s profits? Oh they talked about how they were going to rein in these mammoth profit machines and they certainly kept the headlines filled with sound bites for a while. They even put some toothless restrictions on oil futures trading. But I just don’t recall them actually doing much else to the focus of their wrath, the big oil companies, and now it’s old news.

Or, what ever happened to Nancy Pelosi and her claim that she was going to hold public hearings about being completely uninformed by the CIA about the enhanced interrogation techniques being used on the most hardened terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. She repeatedly stood before the press with cameras rolling and microphones pointed and called the CIA agents liars. Even the newly appointed CIA Director Leon Panetta was dragged into this cat fight in an attempt to protect the agents. Pelosi would have none of it. She swore she had never been told and was prepared to prove it. Right up until it was announced that lying to a congressional committee is a felony as was presenting false evidence. But Pelosi, at least publically, promised to get the whole story out to the masses and clear her name. It seems like this investigation is being handled by the same folks that work for OJ Simpson in his attempts to find the real killer. After over a month of outrageous claims it all just went away. How I do wish Pelosi would follow it.

And whatever happened to Special Middle East Envoy George Mitchell and his presidential mandate to “Push For Peace’? It was only a couple days into the Obama administrations term that the new Messiah introduced George Mitchell as his go to guy who was going to make it all better between Palestine and Israel. Obama had been campaigning for 2 years on the premise that if we just had open dialog on a fair and even basis with the terrorist groups Hamas and the PLO we will be able to break the cycle of violence and bring a lasting peace to this war torn region. Much was made of this by the press as this was actually the job of the new Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But Mitchell was picked and with great fanfare sent on his way to the Holy Land. He has been back and forth several times to reinforce the Obama position of “Can’t we all just get along” but to no avail. There is no peace, there is no negotiation and as far as I can tell there is no Special Envoy George Mitchell anymore either.

Which leads us to our next “Whatever happened to” as in Hillary Clinton? During the Bush administration then Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was on every news show every day shown working on some major project with the executive branch or the military leaders. She was doing what she was supposed to be doing, acting as the country’s chief envoy in all foreign matters. After big promises and a few lesser appearances Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has all but been relegated to cutting the ribbon at Wal-Mart openings. She has made a few swings around the globe but other than presenting her Russian counterpart with a button that instead of saying RESTART was emblazoned with the Russian word for OVERCHARGE, can you think of any mission she has been on that could be considered even mildly successful? OK, how about this, in the past twelve months can you name any mission she has been on (other than the one where Bill picks up his drunken party girls)?

Oh, there are a few more that I will save for later in the week. Like Tom Daschle, Roland Burris, Increased Muslim Cooperation, The National Organization of Women (NOW) ,and how about that new age of diplomacy that was going to have the European Union eating out of our hand.

Much like beauty, success is in the eye of the beholder. You’d have to have some pretty poor peepers to find some in this administration’s first year.

Maybe that’s why the biggest “Whatever happened to” belongs to a free and truthful press corps.

BigFrick is off Thursday, but I will be back on Friday.

The Charlie Brown Syndrome

Big Frick — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 03:24:31 +0000

“Why’s everybody always pickin’ on me?” – Charlie Brown – 1959

With deference to the separation of BigFrick.Com and The Coasters, it certainly seems as though Barack Hussein Obama is channeling the poor, misunderstood Charlie Brown made famous in the 1959 hit song by blaming everybody but himself for his failures. But much the same as the lyrics explain in this rock and roll classic, Charlie Brown was not an innocent victim of undue negative attention and neither is Barack Obama.

In Baltimore, Maryland the president stood before US House Republicans and scolded them for “voting along party lines” and not supporting his misguided attempts to pass the ObamaCare version of nationalized healthcare as well as other parts of his agenda. Addressing the House Republicans at their annual policy retreat Obama said “What happens is that you guys don’t have a lot of room to negotiate with me,” he then went on to say "The fact of the matter is, many of you, if you voted with the administration on something, are politically vulnerable with your own base, with your own party because what you’ve been telling your constituents is, ‘This guy’s doing all kinds of crazy stuff that’s going to destroy America.’ ”

House Republicans had invited the president to address them at this conference. Obama agreed to attend but only if he could bring the bright lights, cameras and reporters of the national press corps. Just take a moment to let that sink in. The President of the United States would only address the policy conference of the Republican House members if he could be televised. Where was this willingness for openness and television cameras when he was negotiating the details of ObamaCare with House Democrats behind locked doors? Where was the televised C-Span coverage he promised of the floor debates on Capitol Hill? Where was the live coverage when the Democrats were giving a $300 million bribe to Louisiana Representative Mary Landrieu for her vote or deciding to exempt the entire state of Nebraska from Medicare increases for the vote of Representative Ben Nelson?

Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and Barack Obama spent months behind closed doors, locking out both the promised television coverage and the Republicans while they strong-armed each of their minions into submission either through intimidation or out and out bribery. And still after it was all said and done Barack Obama couldn’t get his pet project passed before the senatorial tide turned with the special election in Massachusetts. But now, with the camera’s once again rolling, Barack Obama stands before House Republicans and blames them for his failure.

The president then went on to admit that there were some “stray dogs and cats” that had been implanted into the ObamaCare legislation. He mentioned the same thing in his State of the Union address when he talked about some of the “horse trading” that went on. While the analogies of stray dogs and cats and horse trading sound fairly innocuous the reality is that ObamaCare is rife with sweetheart deals for unions, government intrusion into personal freedom and flat out bribery for those Democrats savvy enough to sell their vote.

He stood in the national spotlight and staring right into the eyes of the Supreme Court Justices blatantly and deliberately lied to the American public by intentionally misrepresenting the court’s recent ruling on corporate campaign contributions. And now he stands again before his once adoring media and, in an effort to regain some of that old magic, blames Republicans, from whom he needed no votes in the first place, for his dismal job performance.

Standing behind the podium, staring at the cameras and just flat out lying. It’s like “I did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky” all over again. But this time instead of a stained blue dress the proof will come in the form of a continuing unemployment numbers and oppressive increasing national debt. Keep an eye out for the next phase.

The economy “is” getting better will all depend on what the definition of “is” is.

The State Of Dis-Union

Big Frick — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:39:14 +0000

Women and children first.

Captain Hope E. Changey delivered his first State of the Union address last night and basically gave a pep talk to all the terrified passengers who are scrambling for the rail of the severely listing USS Obama. Don’t panic, was his message, I’m still in control here. Unfortunately that is exactly why so many of his once ardent admirers are now looking for a new Messiah. Or at least a way to save their own skin while this captain goes down with his socialist ship into the turbulent and icy waters of public disapproval.

The president once again tried to tie his failures to the previous administration, laying out the deficit and unemployment numbers he was faced with on day one of his reign. He brought up the debt incurred by “fighting two wars” and also erroneously claimed the Bush tax cuts were responsible for the current deficit. The problem with the Democrats continuing to hang onto that “last 8 years” mentality is that if my memory serves me correctly George W. Bush got reelected during that time, fighting two wars and cutting taxes. Both of those issues were hammered repeatedly by his then opponent John Kerry who, having been soundly defeated by the voters, has since been sent back into both obscurity and the Botox Club waiting room.

The other problem with the Obama approach is that just hours after he arrived in Washington as a US Senator he began to campaign for the job he now holds. That campaign spanned two full years plus during which time he constantly beat the deficit drum claiming the Bush deficit would bankrupt the country. The American voters are not necessarily outraged that he has not eliminated the old deficit but rather that he has tripled it in less than a year. There was, of course, no reasonable explanation for those inconvenient mathematical truths other than to once again use magic numbers to create a deceptive figure of ambiguous heritage regarding the jobs supposedly saved by the hundreds of millions spent on rehabbing the habitat of the California jumping blue tit mouse and installing tattoo removal machines on the gang riddled streets of L.A..

"Somewhere along the line, the White House lost its way. Instead of focusing on solutions to help America’s families wade through the wreckage of the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, Washington has wasted valuable time wrestling with partisan politics in an effort to rush through drastic reforms that do not directly address our most immediate needs."

That quote is not part of the Republican response to the president’s address. No, that quote comes from Democrat Congressman Ike Skelton of Missouri. Skelton added: "The president’s address has lent us all hope – hope that the administration is finally heeding our concerns. It’s about time." The comments of Skelton and other Democrats puts the exclamation point at the end of the sentence that reads – Things are not going well in the land of Pelosi and Reid!

Congressional Democrats are scared, as is their less than fearless leader Barack Obama, who displayed his concern by chiding Republicans to not use their newly elected vote in the Senate to thwart his agenda. An agenda so fraught with untenable spending and oppressive government restrictions that he was unable to accomplish it even when he had filibuster proof rubber stamp.

But the most telling moment for me came when the president scolded the US Supreme Court for their recent ruling on corporate campaign spending. With all the Justices seated right in front of him this say anything community activist qua president was caught in yet another bold faced lie when he claimed their ruling would allow even foreign companies to spend on campaigns without limits. "With all due deference to the separation of powers," he said, the Supreme Court last week "reversed a century of law that I believe will open the floodgates for special interests – including foreign corporations – to spend without limit in our elections."

Well, with all due deference Mr. President, if you’re going to lie about what somebody actually did it would be best of you did it without them sitting there on camera to reply “simply not true” as was done by an obviously perturbed Justice Samuel Alito.

No Mr. President, with all due deference, the Supreme Court acts in accordance with the U.S. Constitution.

You might want to try it sometime.