The Tide Begins To Turn Against Obama

A Gallip poll released today shows that more Americans are against Obama than there are people supporting him.

This should come as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention.

Obama has been on a downward trend for months, a decline in popularity unmatched by any other President in recent memory.

Not only is President Obama and his Democrat colleagues in Congress alienating the average citizen, they are also losing the backing of their formerly fawning supporters in the mainstream media:

Barack Obama Is Not A Socialist

That is the message President Barack Obama presented to a group of business leaders yesterday.

Some of what President Obama had to say:

“Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, I am an ardent believer in the free market.”

 ”I believe businesses like yours are the engines of economic growth in this country.”

“I firmly believe that America’s success in large part depends on your success.”

President Obama then went on to speak to the gathering of CEO’s about his plans to reform health care, impose new regulations for the financial industry, amd to move America towards a “green” economy.

Barack Obama claiming he supports free market economics is about as believable as Bill Clinton saying “I did not have sexual relations with that woman.”

Obama’s Army Is Going AWOL

The “Millennial Generation” of young voters, many of whom comprise one of the President’s most devoted political action committees, Organizing For America, who were a major factor in Barack Obama being elected President in 2008 are not “feeling the love” for the Democratic party that they once had.

In 2008, party affiliation among young voters who “leaned to” one party or another favored Democrats over Republicans by a margin of 62% to 30%.

By 2010 the margin has shrunk to 54% Democrat, 40% Republican.

In February 2009, 73% of Millennials approved of President Obama’s job performance.

Just one year later, in February 2010, only 57% of Millennials give Obama a positive rating.

Sounds like the Millennials “liberal love” is fading.

How do Millennials compare to the political leanings of other age groups?

Among Generation X’ers, 38% described their political views as moderate and 38% said they were conservative; only 20% described themselves as liberal.

More Baby Boomers and members of the Silent Generation described their political views as conservative than moderate; 43% of Baby Boomer voters said they are conservative, 36% described themselves as moderate and only 18% said they are liberal. Similarly, 45% of voters in the Silent Generation described their views as conservative, 35% as moderate and 15% said they are liberal.

After such a strong showing of support for liberal values in 2008, the tide among younger voters may be shifting.

In the fourth quarter of 2009, as many Millennial voters identified themselves as liberals (29%) as conservatives (28%), while 40% said they are moderates.

So what does all of this mean for younger voters future support of President Obama, Democrat political candidates, and liberalism in general?

Sir Winston Churchill said it best:

“If you’re not a liberal at twenty you have no heart, if you’re not a consevative at forty you have no brain.”

 

 

Source: Pew Research Center

President Obama Cuts Funding For Successful Educational Programs

Recently, President Obama visited a group of sixth graders at Graham Road Elementary School in Falls Church, Virginia to announce his intention to increase federal funding for the “Race To The Top” program, a program that is supposed to provide for educational reforms in four pre-defined areas of assurance.

With liitle if any Congressionally set standards, Race To The Top has been called by some 
the largest discretionary education program in history.

So President Obama is throwing billions of dollars at a federal education program with an unproven record of success.

And for educational programs with a proven track record, such as Upward Bound, funded by the Department of Education’s TRIO program, he is cutting funding.

Upward Bound is a successful pre-college access program that was established in 1967 and is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education.

The program recruits and provides educational, social and cultural services to potential first-generation college students.

Participation is extended to eligible students who wish to make a commitment to their educational goals. Each participant is given the opportunity to develop the academic skills necessary to complete high school and successfully matriculate to postsecondary education.

One one of the few things that President Obama and I agree on, this country needs to vastly improve the American educational system, and Race To The Top may yet prove to be a step in the right direction.

But I do have to question the wisdom of the President at the same time cutting funding for an educational program with a proven record of success.

95% of Upward Bound graduates have entered post-secondary education. TRIO program research shows that Upward Bound students are four times more likely to earn a college degree than students from similar back-grounds who do not participate in the program.

In his FY2011 budget request to Congress, President Obama recommended level-funding TRIO.
 However, the Administration has confirmed that this does not include continued funding for the nearly 200 Upward Bound projects funded through the College Cost Reduction and Access Act of 2007 (CCRAA).

The Department has also announced its plans to host a grant competition for Classic Upward Bound this year. (Competitions for Upward Bound Math-Science and Veterans Upward Bound will still be held in 2011.)

 
Ultimately, it is clear that without increased funding from Congress in FY2011, nearly 200 Upward Bound programs will be lost after the next academic year.

It’s crucial that anyone concerned with the future of America’s educational systen contact their legislators in Washington and protest funding for this excellent and proven program.

Click Here for Senate contact information

Click Here for House contact information

Here are suggestions for talking points to raise when you contact your Senator and/or member of the House of Representatives:

What is the Situation?

• President Obama’s FY 2011 budget request to Congress does not include sufficient funds to fund all 956 of the current Upward Bound programs in academic year 2011-2012. Rather, President Obama’s FY2011 budget request only provides enough funds to support 778 Upward Bound programs that year.

 

• Because the FY2011 budget request to Congress does not include enough discretionary funds to absorb the cost of funding all of the current programs in academic year 2011-2012, the Department plans to host a competition for Classic Upward Bound in late summer/early fall 2010. This will allow them to reduce the total number of projects in the 2011-2012 school year.

 

Who Does This Situation Impact?

• Every Classic Upward Bound program is at risk as this will be a regular competition. Unsuccessful applications will not get funded – regardless of whether they were funded by CCRAA or not. New applicants may also win grant awards. Therefore, it is crucial to get Congress to include at least an additional $57 million in discretionary funds otherwise the total number of Upward Bound projects will be far lower in program year 2011-2012.

The following is a detailed analysis of President Obama’s Department of Education funding cuts obtained from the Council For Opportunity In Education

In his FY2011 budget request to Congress, President Obama recommended level-funding TRIO at $905.1 million. However, this is, in fact, a cut because the money is divided over two years and does not sustain programs funded through 2007’s College Cost Reduction and Access Act (CCRAA):

Program Year
2009-2010
(appropriated) Program Year
2010-2011
(appropriated) Program Year
2011-2012
(requested)
Discretionary Funding $853.1 million
(FY2009 funds) $853.1 million
(FY2010 funds) $853.1 million
(FY2011 funds)
Mandatory Funding (CCRAA) $57 million
(FY2010 funds) $57 million
(FY2011 funds) $0

Loss of Nearly 200 Upward Bound Projects

During the last grant competition for Upward Bound in 2007, several historic projects — including a disproportionate number of programs at historically black institutions — lost funding. At the time, Congress was crafting a budget reconciliation bill — the College Cost Reduction and Access Act (CCRAA). Under the leadership of Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA), CCRAA included an amendment that provided $57 million each year for fiscal years 2008-2011 to fund 187 additional Upward Bound grants to serve approximately 12,000 students across the country.

Unlike typical TRIO funding, this mandatory money went into effect immediately — funding Upward Bound projects in the 2007-2008 academic year. Generally, TRIO appropriations are forward-funded. That is, appropriations for a particular fiscal year actually fund grants that begin during the following academic year (i.e., nearly a year after that fiscal year has begun).

The FY2011 TRIO appropriation will fund TRIO grants for academic year 2011-2012. However, because the mandatory funds for the nearly 200 Upward Bound programs provided by CCRAA went into effect immediately, the last academic year for which funds are available is 2010-2011. By failing to include additional discretionary funds to account for these programs in academic year 2011-2012, the Administration has essentially determined that it will not maintain the current number of Upward Bound projects (964 total). Rather, the Administration’s FY2011 budget request only provides enough funds to support 778 Upward Bound programs in academic year 2011-2012.

The Department has announced plans to host a competition for Classic Upward Bound this year. Some of the institutions funded by CCRAA may earn scores high enough to maintain their programs. Ultimately, without an increase in discretionary funding for Upward Bound in FY2011, about 200 Upward Bound programs serving 12,000 students will be lost.

Unfunded Mandate in Talent Search

The Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 (HEOA) requires Talent Search to provide services to support students’ successful completion of rigorous postsecondary curricula. It mandates that Prior Experience Points be awarded on this basis. We know that this is a significant change that will require a host of additional staff and services, such as afterschool and Saturday sessions, online tutoring, etc. The current per-student cost of $393 will not be sufficient for these purposes. In fact, Talent Search personnel have indicated that the per-student cost for Talent Search must increase to at least $1,200 (or $807 above the current cost for each Talent Search student) to allow programs to meet this new prior experience criterion.

In spite of this knowledge, the Administration has opted to level-fund Talent Search and thereby impose an unfunded mandate or allow significant cuts in the number of Talent Search students served. Without changes to the authorizing legislation or additional appropriations, many Talent Search programs will be unable to meet this new criterion.

Continued Reduction of Students and Services in All Other Programs

Whether competing this year or not, all TRIO programs will be forced to stretch the same dollars as they have for the last several years. Between FY2006 and FY2010, inflation rose about 8%; meanwhile, TRIO lost over 39,000 students and $66.8 million in funding due to rising costs.1 With more Americans turning to higher education during this economic downturn, the need for increased services and support is greater than ever.

Despite vocal support of TRIO as both a Senator and presidential candidate as well as consistent reiteration of the goal to emerge first in the world for college completion by 2020, President Obama has failed to support increased investment in TRIO. We must push Congress to remedy the problems outlined above in their FY2011 appropriations legislation. Without such support, TRIO may not be there to support the many students who need our help in the future.

Please be on the lookout for future action alerts regarding these measures. Also, we strongly encourage you to participate in upcoming conference calls sponsored by the Government Relations team for additional instructions on how we can save our programs.

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1 Inflation calculated in FY 2010 dollars, using Fiscal Year CPI-U (Bureau of Labor Statistics) and Congressional Budget Office projections (August 2009).

Despite Federal Funding Ban, ACORN To Receive Four Billion Dollar Earmark

Barack Obama  hasn’t forgotten his old friends at ACORN.

In spite of President Obama’s pledge to freeze discretionary spending and reduce earmarks, ACORN stands to receive nearly four billion dollars in President Obama’s fiscal 2011 budget.

The money will come through a grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The embezzllement-prone organization will receive the funding in spite Congress last year passing a ban on federal monies being given to Acorn or any of it’s affiliated groups.

As I understand it, HUD doles out “block grants” to assist with community development needs.

Now before we go any further, let me try to put into perspective just how much a bliion dollars is, and keep in mind that ACORN stands to receive 4 billion:

If you spent one dollar every second of every hour of every day, to spend a billion dollars it would take you:
Thirty One Years
Two Hundred And Fifty Nine Days
One Hour
Forty Six Minutes
Fourty Seconds

So how will ACORN, an organization with a history of fraud, spend all of that money?

Well, some of it will surely go to pay staffers to offer advice on how to set up a child prostitution ring, as is shown in this clip from the Glenn Beck program:

Some of it might be spent on bribing members of the mainstream media.
Why do I think that may happen?
Watch the reaction of the MSM when the hidden camera interview of an ACORN staffer first broke:

They found one office where the people were stupid enough to give them this kind of silly advice.”
“It sounds to me like that’s just entrapment.”

“It’s entrapment.”
“They went to four offices and one took the bait.”

Someone must be bribing the members of the mainstream media!

It doesn’t matter if these people went to four offices or four hundred!

The bottom line remains that ACORN staffers advised someone on how to set up a child prostitution ring!!

Yet all that these pinheads are concerned about is that the people at ACORN might have been victims of entrapment.

The entrapment of children into becoming sex slaves they didn’t see fit to mention.

They might use some of the cash to influence the outcome of an election.

Some folks have asked did ACORN elect Al Franken?

So when they aren’t rigging elections, bribing the mainstream media, or offering advice on how to set up a child prostitution ring, how do these folks at ACORN spend their time?

Well, last April, I wrote an article in which I pointed out that with the help of the biggest group of supporters of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign and the organization that continues to travel across America promoting President Obama’s policies, Organizing For America, may be working hand-in-hand with ACORN to have their members infiltrate Tea Party events

With all of this going on, you would think that an article in a major newspaper about ACORN sowing the seeds of their own destruction would have put an end to them receiving any federal earmarks, however it appears that report was a bit premature.

So how is it that the folks at ACORN aren’t in jail, let alone receiving 4 billion of our tax dollars?

Well, first of all, the bully tactics of the White House work to silence anyone who attempts to investigate the group.

Anyone who has any doubt about President Obama’s previous ties to ACORN can take a look at this timeline and see that Obama’s twisted ACORN roots go back a long way.

Yet in spite of all of this, ACORN is in line for a four billion dollar federal earmark.

It pays to have friends in high places.

Especially the White House.

 

To read the federal court documents ACORN filed against whistleblower Anita MonCrief, click here.

For former ACORN member Anita MonCrief’s inside look at ACORN fraud, click here.

Team Obama Is Stuck On Stupid

President Obama Changes Don’t Ask Don’t Tell To Don’t Ask Me

During his State Of The Union speech, President Obama vowed to repeal “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
As with most things that Barack Obama does, he makes a promise without any ideas or plans as to how he is going to keep it.

Ten Rules For Republican Radicals

One of President Obama’s favorite books is Saul Alinsky’s Rules For Radicals.

As we pointed out here recently, it is even on the list of recommended reading on the recruitment applications that the members of Obama’s Army, Organizing For America, are passing out to high school students.

So if the leftists can follow the Socialist views in Alinsky’s book, it’s only fair that conservatives have their own set of rules to live by.

1) Always try to decentralize power as much as possible. The further power is removed from the people, the less it serves them. That’s why anti-government radicals should always look for ways to push power downhill. From the federal government to state governments, from state governments to local governments, from local governments to the people — the more power that can be shifted away from the government towards the people, the better.

2) Earmarks are corruption. Earmarks may be a small part of a deficit, but they’re responsible for a large part of the corruption in Congress. That’s because earmarks have turned into a way for members of Congress to pay off campaign contributors, political allies, and family members with our tax dollars. Until we get a handle on earmarks, we’re not going to have honest government in this country.

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Sarah Palin Hints At A Third-Party Candidacy

It seems that Sarah Barracuda has her sights set on the White House.
A favorite of many conservative Republicans, she now has the enthusiastic support of the Tea Party Nation.
Shortly after a speech at the first national Tea Party Convention, Palin asked “How’s that Hopey Changey stuff working out for ya’?”
The support of the Tea Party could lead Palin to consider a third-party candidacy as Ross Perot did in ‘92 and ‘96.

Sarah Palin, the former US presidential running-mate, on Sunday hinted strongly she was preparing a 2012 presidential bid and suggested that Barack Obama needed to take radical steps, such as going to war with Iran, to boost his chance of winning a re-election.

Ms Palin’s comments to Fox News Sunday followed a provocative speech on Saturday to the Tea Party Convention in Nashville.

Amid chants of “Run, Sarah, run”, Ms Palin told the Nashville audience: “America is ready for another revolution and you are part of this.”

The former governor of Alaska also mocked the president as a “charismatic guy with a tele-prompter” and accused him of being a “professor of law at a lecture” rather than the US commander-in-chief.

However, it was Ms Palin’s comments about Mr Obama on Sunday that are likely to cause most controversy. “Things would dramatically change if he [Mr Obama] decided to toughen up and do all that he can to secure our nation and our allies,” she told Fox.

“Say he decided to declare war on Iran, or decided to really come out and do whatever he could to support Israel, which I would like him to do.”

Pressed on whether she would run in 2012, she said: “I would if I believe that that is the right thing to do for our country and for the Palin family.”

However, Ms Palin, who took a fee of $100,000 (€71,400, £62,500) for the speech, which she said she would donate to the “cause”, has also hinted that her association with the Tea Party movement, a large chunk of which boycotted the Nashville convention because it charged $549 a ticket, could open the way to a third-party candidacy along the lines of Ross Perot’s 1992 and 1996 presidential bids. “You’ve got both party machines running scared,” she said.

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Ahmadinejad Flips Obama The Bird

And unless President Obama wises up really soon, the next thing this nut job will be flipping is nuclear missiles.
OOOOOOOO! Obama and the UN are imposing sanctions!!
Oh well, I’ll just enrich some more uranium.

Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered his country’s atomic agency on Sunday to begin the production of higher enriched uranium, in a move that’s likely to deepen international skepticism about the country’s real intentions on the crucial issue of enriched uranium.

In comments broadcast on state television, Ahmadinejad said: “God willing, 20 percent enrichment will start” to meet Iran’s needs. He did not give a date for the start of the enrichment process.

He was speaking at a meeting attended by the head of Iran’s atomic energy agency, Ali Akbar Salehi.

Turning to Salehi, Ahmadinejad said: “Mr. Salehi, begin production of 20 percent” enriched uranium.”

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