Presidential hyprocrisy?? | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: Jim Bispo's weekly column appears in the Beaufort Observer

    Early in the week of 6/19, the Prez was finding fault with ATMs and Kiosks in airports where you could check in and print your own tickets etc. because, according to him, they cost us jobs. He apparently didn't even think about the people who design, build, install, maintain and service the ATMs and Kiosks. Of course, it is probably too much to expect that an individual who never had a real job himself, would understand things like that. You "Plop 'em down" and then get rid of a bank teller or ticket agent. Yeah, right. But then toward the end of the week, he is proposing to shower money on researchers in support of the development ind implementation of more robotics. Is this what "working at cross purposes" means?? It's bad enough when it happens between two different arms of government; but when both arms are connected to the same person, it's really bad. Do you suppose the anointed one went "off script" again??

    The next thing you know, he is bad mouthing the rich; trying to get the Reps to sign on to reduced tax deductions for company aircraft. (He says "jet aircraft" but surely not all company aircraft are jet aircraft.) At the same time he (and frequently his wife) is hop scotching all over the country (in a "company jet" - AF-1) under the guise of doing the public's business. It is only coincidental that so many of those trips allow him to attend fund raisers while at the destination. Of course it is. Regardless, every trip leaves a rather large carbon footprint whether it is he or his wife going for the jaunt. That clearly makes it even more important for the rest of us to redouble our efforts to control CO2 in the atmosphere. But I digress.

    The anointed one pushes for doing away with tax deductions for oil companies. After all, they do make a lot of money. By the way, has anyone looked at their ROI ?? If you did, I am quite sure you would find many industries that get a whole lot better return on their investment than do the oil companies. What the chief community organizer never seems to mention is the amount of taxes those oil companies pay. At the same time, his seemingly favorite entrepreneur's company (GE, in case you were wondering) also makes a ton of money but somehow last year they not only paid no taxes on that income but even ended up with a credit toward this year's taxes. So which of those companies should we be going after?? The one that pays taxes - or the one that doesn't?? Seems like a no brainer - but not apparently not to the anointed one. Could it possibly have anything to do with large contributions to his campaign?? Naw... Of course not...Not this administration...

    And, by the way has anyone looked where energy subsidies have been going in the last few years?? Well, maybe not the last few years. The latest data I could find (even on the Energy Administration web site) is for 2007. For a graphical representation, click here. The chart shows that Renewables accounted for over one quarter of all energy subsidies and were more than twice as much as Natural Gas and Petroleum (combined). It would be a safe bet to suggest that the subsidies for so called "renewables" have increased more than for the other classifications in the years since the anointed one has had a say about it. If we are going to go after energy subsidies, maybe we should take away all subsidies. Not just for oil, but for all so called energy producing activities. Hmmm.....

    Back to the fund raisers. We hear that the 2012 campaign fund raising goal for the anointed one is on the order of one billion dollars. A billion; that's a thousand million. Typically it seems as though a plate at one of these fund raisers reportedly costs $38,500. It seems like a stretch to believe that those plates are being purchased by the so called "middle class" Americans, whom the Prez and his minions claim to be protecting with their flood of new regulations. I would venture that in order to be willing and able to make that large a contribution, one must be either a union official (buying in with other people's money - as in union dues they collected) or comfortably ensconced at the very same income levels that the Prez seems to be bashing in virtually every speech he makes. Those would be the same folks whose taxes he says he wants to increase - or at least that's what he keeps saying. Wouldn't those be the same people the Dems claim are being protected from tax increases by the Republicans?? So what do you suppose they are doing shelling out that kind money for the community organizer's campaign. We can only wonder how it is those folks who are shelling out all that money to dine with the Prez (and don't forget maybe a few private words and a picture) rationalize making such large contributions to one who keeps preaching that he wants even more of their income to redistribute. What he says to these folks privately in his one-on-one conversations or his speeches at these breakfasts or dinner soirees to keep them in the fold remains an unknown. It would seem to be a safe bet that he is not "bashing" them as he seems to be doing when he speaks to the rest of us. Would that be yet a further demonstration of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy much like was demonstrated when he somewhat derisively told the "swells" in Marin County (Queen Nancy P.'s back yard) that the country folks in western Pennsylvania continue to cling to their guns and Bibles - as though there was something wrong with that. Is this an example of our chief community organizer "currying favor"?? What kind of people do that?? I'll tell you. It's the same people who bow to Arab rulers, that's who.

    The fact that the folks with $38,500 to spend on dinner can even be bothered to attend one of his fund raisers (even though it does provide an opportunity to have your picture taken with him) after being thrown under the bus because of their financial status adds new meaning to the term "non-sequitur". As far as the picture is concerned, such a picture could rather easily be created with "Photoshop" - and for a whole lot less money.

    And now we hear the NEA asking for $10.00 from each of their members for the Prez campaign. That doesn't sound like a lot to ask for, but when you consider that the NEA (according to Wikipedia) has about 3.2 M members it sounds a lot like $32,000,000 if they all do as requested (requested?? Hmm...Actually, it is reportedly a dues increase - which leaves those poor underpaid teachers with about a $900.00 annual bill for union dues.) During the last presidential election, it was reported that 80% of the union members supported the anointed one. Too bad about the other 20% whose money the union spent supporting the anointed one. Sounds like another benefit of joining a union; you don't have to think or have an opinion, the union bosses will take care of that for you - just make sure your dues are current. So what's wrong with that picture??

    The Prez "bad mouths" the rich and says he wants to abscond with more of their money; presumably to dump on the unions or his favorite energy projects (i.e. wind and solar) or or the "needy", or some other "worthwhile" activity. That would seem to include almost anything other than beginning to pay down the national debt.

    D'ya think??