Will the Yanks do it better?

BARACK Obama has proposed a $US6 billion ($6.6bn) program to help millions of American home owners make their houses more energy efficient with government rebates of up to $US3000. Quick learners aren’t they. Obama’s plan includes;
… immediate rebates of up to $US1500 for upgrading their insulation, ducted heating, water heaters, airconditioners, windows, doors and roofing.
and;
Home owners who invested in a “retrofit” of the whole house to greatly reduce energy use would be eligible for rebates of up to $US3000.
Rudd’s now discredited plan cost $2.45 billion (insulation only) sounds a bit grandiose considering the variations in populations, but thats our Kev. Still on Obama, Anthony Albanese, in his role as leader of the government in the House of Representatives, has confirmed that parliament will be specially recalled for the US President in three weeks’ time.
`The visit of President Barack Obama will of course generate a great deal of interest from the Australian public and indeed we will be honoured by his presence in Canberra on that day,” Mr Albanese said. The last American president to address the Australian parliament was George W. Bush in October 2003.
I presume he will be better treated than Bush was seeing as how both parties are now central left and cosy as all get out. Maybe Rudd can give Obama some tips on house insulation precesses or at least offer the services of Garrett – gets him out of our hair. I had my house insulated but my power bill is still on the up and up without the satisfaction of my usage following a similar curve. Isn’t it supposed to save me money?

Rudd like Obama says Ambassador

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd and US President Barack Obama have a “tremendous affinity”, a senior US diplomat said. US Ambassador Jeffrey Bleich said the powerful pair had plenty in common. I couldn’t agree more! They both talk well and do little. After a year in office support for Mr Obama has fallen as the US grapples with the financial crisis, and some of the President’s reforms hit roadblocks. Another roadblock has just been put in place with Martha Coakley conceding defeat to Scott Brown in the Massachusetts Senate seat left vacant by Mary Jo Kopechne’s‘s killer, Ted Kennedy. Scott Brown is on record as saying he will not vote for the health bill in it’s current form.

Obama gets spies off-side

BARACK Obama angrily revealed today that US intelligence services had enough information to disrupt the Christmas Day airliner attack but had “failed to connect those dots And just in case some spies still had any morale left he adds;
Mr Obama was even more explicit during the meeting in the secure White House Situation Room, an official said, calling for immediate repairs to the flawed US homeland security system, and not typical Washington finger-pointing. “This was a screw-up that could have been disastrous,” the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, quoted Mr Obama as saying in the meeting.
You are most probably correct POTUS but ripping into staff is best done in private because about now, a heap of dedicated operators are thinking; Stuff him, we tried…got it wrong maybe but…… He’ll get some votes from those who hate the system and like to see the CIA and FBI ridiculed but he now has another profession that doesn’t like him – if they ever did.

What on earth is he on about?

obama President Obama continues with his left wing plan to lend support to the Terrorists and every little Communist dictator he meets.   Forelock tugging in the Middle East, smiles and chats with Chavez and ” Hello Cuba, I want to be your friend” type activities must be making for many a wide eyed foreign diplomat.  But that’s not all! Let’s tell the world, including the terrorists trying every day to kill us,  just how we go about extracting information from them. After releasing details on so called torture he assured a mainly wide eyed CIA audience that they shouldn’t worry and then the next day talks of Bush Officials being probed about their legal advice giving the green light for the so called torture.
The president last week overruled objections from Central Intelligence Agency officials and released documents that described such interrogation tactics as waterboarding, slamming prisoners against walls and confining them in cramped spaces — sometimes populated with insects — to induce fear.
Mark Corallo, a former Bush administration official in the Department of Justice lays it on the line.
“To even leave the door open to prosecuting lawyers who in good faith sought to provide legal advice to our military and intelligence community, who were protecting us from more terrorist attacks, is outrageous and shows a lack of leadership and an unfortunate act of obeisance towards the radical left of the president’s party,”
Even Mr. Obama’s director of national intelligence, Dennis Blair, defended the harsh practices.
He wrote in a letter to colleagues last week that “high-value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qaeda organization that was attacking this country.”
Slamming prisoners against the wall….oh my God, the horror of it all! But really, if just one American life was saved by these ‘abhorrant interrogation techniques’ then it is justified. The fact that hundreds and possibly thousands of lives have been saved makes me ask ‘What on earth is he on about? More at WSJ

Obama at his generous best

Mark Steyn in the National Review Online on why the President’s presents won’t be eagerly anticipated abroad
BRITISH Prime Minister Gordon Brown thought long and hard about what gift to bring on his visit to the White House last week. The Prime Minister gave him an ornamental desk pen-holder hewn from the timbers of one of the Royal Navy’s anti-slaving ships of the 19th century, HMS Gannet. Even more appropriate, in 1909 the Gannet was renamed HMS President. The president’s guest also presented him with the framed commission for HMS Resolute, the lost British ship retrieved from the Arctic and returned by America to London, and whose timbers were used for a thank-you gift Queen Victoria sent to Rutherford Hayes: the handsome desk that now sits in the Oval Office. And, just to round things out, as a little stocking stuffer, Brown gave President Obama a first edition of Sir Martin Gilbert’s seven-volume biography of Winston Churchill. In return, America’s head of state gave the Prime Minister 25 DVDs of classic American movies. Evidently, the White House gift shop was all out of “my government delegation went to Washington and all I got was this lousy T-shirt” T-shirts. Still, the classic American movies set is a pretty good substitute, and it can set you back as much as $38.99 at Wal-Mart. It could be worse. The president might have given him the DVD of He’s Just Not That Into You.
Is that for real? Mark wonders whether Brown will even be able to view the movies;
I’ll be interested to know if Mr. Brown has anything to play the films on back home, since U.S.-format DVDs don’t work in United Kingdom DVD players.
Class act, Obama! The Chicago Sun-Times carries the story line as well. One commenter notes;
Not to be out done in tastelessness by her husband, Michelle got into the act, too. Mrs. Brown came bearing two outfits for the Obama girls from Topshop, one of Britain’s trendiest and expensive women’s wear retail outlets. In return, Michelle apparently had a staffer run down to the White House gift shop and grab two toy Marine One helicopter models for the Brown’s boys. Class all the way, huh?
And this Obama lover calling himself American Patriot echoes his President’s obvious opinion.
That gift was too good for a pig like Brown. Obama doesn’t trust the British because he’s much smarter than Bush was.
Yeah…right! That statement pretty well typifies the Obama crowd in one sentence. Ah…the consequences of elections. Good luck Uncle Sam.

Taxing time for Obama

What is it with Democrats and taxation. Three of Obama’s choices Tom Daschle, Nancy Killefer and Timothy Geithner have been found wanting in the “paying taxes” department. Must be something about spending other peoples money. A comment from one wise head.
That’s the reason why it’s generally wiser to elect a candidate with a few more miles on the odometer, and who may not create more cats, so as to render the herding even more difficult.

Obama is Lord

QUEENSLAND parliament’s Speaker Mike Reynolds will provide a character reference in a Townsville court today for convicted Palm Island rioter Lex Wotton, who is due to be sentenced for his role in riots on Palm Island a week after Mulrunji Doomadgee died. Wotton’s lawyer Stewart Levitt said yesterday his client would appeal against his conviction, regardless of today’s sentence. He also said; “In the new age of Obama, it will be interesting to see how this trial will be viewed given the changing political landscape.” The Messiah is here, a new millennium has dawned before it’s time! Uh-uh!

For better or worse

President Elect Obama has the left and other assorted anti US groups in such a euphoric state that it gives rise to a feeling of alarm, as in, if something looks to good. it most probably is. Bloggers and readers of the conservative faith may remember Arthur Chrenkov who ran a blog in Australia sometime back that specialized in pointing out the good news from Iraq. His pleas for rational thought on Iraq have long been vindicated and today, whilst reading Pajamas Media I came across Arthur again. I haven’t seen him since we had a beer together at the Bekkie Creek some years ago so I’m pleased to hear he is still kicking around. You might like to read his thoughts on Obama and don’t forget to read the comments to get a sample of the depth of feeling. A sample;
Is anyone suprised to read the calls for unity, how we all need to get behind Obama, how we shouldn’t get ODS, how we should stop labeling Obama, don’t call him unpatriotic? Unless I’ve lost my memory aren’t these the some of the same people who have been calling conservatives stupid, evil, blah, blah, blah? Now all of a sudden we’re supposed to join hands around the campfire and sing songs? There is no reason to support Obama’s judgment any more today than there was yesterday. If he governs as the flaming liberal his past indicates he is – it will be a disaster for the country. If he governs from the center as the conservative talking heads who jumped ship hope he will – the angst & unhappiness of the uber-left will bring me great amusement. I intend to give President Obama and his administration the same respect and consideration many on the Left gave Pres Bush.
Fair enough too, although I intend to try and keep irrational emotion out of my comments and stick to known facts. I doubt I’ll ever blame Obama for any future hurricane that hits New Orleans but I will be keeping a watch on just how far left the administration veers. It’s a long time since I’ve been moved by fanatical religious rallies as witnessed last night on TV so a healthy skepticism will be the order of the day.

Obama and his friends

While the ABC, SBS and tabloid TV stations fall over themselves to report Sarah Palin had the temerity to suggest someone should be sacked for behaviour unbecoming an officer of the law; I thought, in the interests of balance, a consideration currently AWOL in the media’s coverage of the US Presidential elections, that I should link to the post below. Question: Does Barack Obama Have Any Friends Who AREN’T Communists? Good question and some answers here This week will be politics free for me as I go to Lamington NP to run a base camp for college boys studying Australian Environmental Studies. I have switched off moderation as I won’t be able to do so until Saturday morning. Go for it! Debate that is, not abuse.
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