Hawkeye Review

Inside the beltway: The Rest of the Story...

As President Obama continues to perform his duties well below expectations, I had wondered if this political charade could get any worse.  Well this story confirms that notion and I can't help but to shake my head in disbelief.

As I've written before, Barack Obama ran one of the best campaign organizations ever to exist at the Presidential level.  Great strategic planning, sound message discipline and a formidable army of ground troops at the grass-roots level to mobilize votes.

 Now Obama competes with the failed legacy of Jimmy Carter...

When Presidents Obama and Clinton met for a 90 minute intimate lunch last week at a posh Greenwich Village restaurant, many political observers credited Obama for his willingness to "consult" with former President Clinton on the key issues of the day, health care reform, Afghanistan/Iraq and the economy.

Members of the Democrat elite all drew great comfort sensing a reconciliation between two political rivals that had become heated in recent months.

Truth be told:  Insiders have leaked the topic of discussion and this really fires me up today. Instead of consulting on the high stakes crisis that Obama has governed himself/and us into over these many months...

 Obama was consulting Bill Clinton on the topic of going after his enemies!

Now we learn there is an enemies list. (Top 20) and the driving force behind this wasn't who you might suspect. (Of course, we expect Rahm Emanuel to champion dirty political tricks) Believe it or not, it was first lady Michelle Obama who badgered Barack into fighting back!

Bill Clinton is now counseling Obama on taking on his fiercest critics and then taking them down one by one.

Now I want to be clear on this:  I don't find the Globe to be a reliable front line source of journalistic integrity.  Yet, I can't help but to "buy-in" on this exclusive as Obama has proven himself ill-suited to handle political criticism.

Will Michelle Obama now imitate the politcal antics of first lady Hillary Clinton?

I suggest you simply put this on the back burner and continue to watch for further evidence that members of this now famous "enemies list" are targeted by agencies of the US government.  Certainly the IRS comes to mind, but don't forget free speech and talk radio may come under attack too.

Here's the bottom line.  I'll continue to watch for validation of this story and if indeed this is true, it is a damning revelation that proves President Obama is unfit to govern.  He spends his precious time meeting a former President to discuss a political enemies list while the war, economy and health care crisis require his urgent, day to day hands-on attention.

I suspect it's now clear.  This President is over his head.  Clearly, we've lost hope.  Now it's time for change.  This change is enacted peacefully by the power of your vote.

How To Boil A Frog Series: More School Indoctrination...

Here's yet another visual example to fire you up today.  Intuitively, we all know the educational institutions have clearly attempted to indoctrinate our children.  It may not seem over the top at the early grade levels, but ask any college aged conservative about this subject and make sure you carve an extra hour out of your schedule to "listen" to the innumerable exhibits they will offer.

I'm okay with teaching our students to respect the earth, to conserve valuable resources and yes, even to show respect for those who have a religion that's different than ours.  But that doesn't mean "WE" have our religious rights "muzzled" while our students are taught Kwanzaa and encouraged to read the Koran to "appreciate" the varied religions of the world.

Last year I spent a day teaching government classes at one of the local high schools here in town and found myself with an hour gap over the lunch period where I eventually found the school library and spent my time looking around.  One curious finding was the section on religion, where I found 3 copies of the King James Bible which were all over 30 years old and by reading the check out panel at the back of the book, learned that none had been used in over 7 years.  Contrast that with the 12 copies of the Koran, all in mint condition and used with great frequency. 

Was this a fluke?  You be the judge.  Here's more evidence for you to consider...

Obama won the election.  His victory speech and celebration in Chicago were fine.  They worked hard for this victory.  My contention is this: The celebration should have ended when the crowd left and the park department cleaned up the field...but the celebration continues...in our public schools with those who would become the future of the conservative movement. 

They have yet to learn there are two political parties either.  By the time they do, it's often too late!

 

The Worst Job in Iowa Politics...

It's day one for John Frew today.  Welcome to our nightmare...

Governor Culver's new Chief of Staff will have his hands full to say the least.  Back in July when the appointment was announced, Chet Culver had formidable challenges ahead and in just weeks since, our chief of state has been rocked with a series of significant political and administrative setbacks.

It is a poll or does this "free fall" feel like a bungee jump?

In only 8 months, Chet Culver's approval rating has plummeted by 37%.  Even Democrats are getting tired of his incompetence and COS (Chief of Staff) Frew won't have the luxury of a honeymoon in his new position.  In fact, many Iowans would vote to take our governor to "divorce court" if such an option were available to us right now.

Misery loves company (Speaker Pelosi and Governor Culver)

Although John Frew is considered a political "heavyweight" by senior party officials, I'm not sure he can reverse the damage path and prevent the inevitable consequences that lie ahead for the Governor.

1) REC (Revenue Estimating Conference)  There are two scheduled meetings. One in October and then again in December.  They will both add to Culver's misery index as state tax collections and revenues will continue to fall almost in sync with the poll ratings. After the last REC downgrade to state revenues, Culver released a statement via Email, (hide when the news is that bad) and I want you to carefully read this small excerpt; full story here.

"My Administration has stayed ahead of the changing economic conditions by taking effective steps to ensure a balanced budget and maintain strong fiscal management."

The problem with Culver's statement is the series of torrential developments within his administration that dispels any notion of competence and pro-active governing.   The scope of this problem only grows due to the massive spending increases during Culver's first term.  Remember, the bail-out dollars were a one time, "hail Mary" from the federal treasury, this scenario won't repeat itself and Iowa will face a stark and cruel reality in January.

2) Condition of the State:  When Culver takes the podium in January to give his condition of the state speech, rhetoric and oratory will fail to distract Iowan's from the nearly $1 Billion dollar shortfall facing down the legislative branches.  Even across the board budget cuts will fail to trim enough costs to make the budget digestible to even staunch Democrats in the legislature.

 One of Culver's greatest missteps thus far has been his failure to provide leadership and communicate with legislative leaders. Specifically leaders Gronstal and Murphy.  Expect high drama and low expectations once the next legislative session gavels in and gets down to the business of of sorting out the handiwork of Iowa's "Billion Dollar Man." 

3) Overexposure will only make things worse:  Insiders have already leaked Culver's plans to make an aggressive push to improve his damaged political brand via numerous statewide appearances.  The problem is this strategy was already tried by President Obama and it clearly failed.  After the media blitz last Sunday on 5 network talk shows and a Monday appearance on Letterman, Obama's ratings have dropped even further and now stand at an all time low. Chet Culver isn't going to benefit from friendly ribbon ceremonies and as the 2010 campaign season ramps up shortly, this will only take more time away from the office and this cycle, I don't expect Iowans to forget a failed track record as Culver attempts to "spin" the economy, jobs, spending and disaster recovery.

I expect John Frew to take the lead role and work with the "A-Team" assembled by powers within the DC beltway to protect and preserve Culver's position as Iowa's head of state.  He'll be working with Therea Vilmain, Andrew Roos and Pete D'Alessandro.

You can read my initial profile of Frew published in July here.  (Get ready to rumble) In short, expect some immediate conflict within the Culver administration as the new strongman clocks in for duty and don't be surprised if more officials within the Culver administration are "clocked out" in the near term. Frew is well known for his ability to inflict a political "bloody nose" and I expect he'll have his hands full in the coming weeks.

This should provide some dramatic theater for political observers in the days ahead.  I believe the greatest conflict will occur between the power players inside the beltway who expect to be calling the shots for our embattled governor through these new power players inside his administration. 

I predict the downfall of Chet Culver will be attributed to his inability to fight a battle on more than one front.  They want us to think there's harmony at Terrace Hill, but I'm fairly certain Chet Culver is already challenged by insiders in his own party who are tired of waiting patiently for results.

 

 

 

Have you ever seen a picture of a "tax increase?"

 A picture's worth a thousand words folks and for those of you who think it's political suicide to raise taxes on the middle class, I suggest you study this image carefully. 

Tax increases are on the way!

This chart is prepared using data from the CBO (Congressional Budget Office) which shows the Federal Debt based on the budget numbers already released by the Obama administration. Additional metrics and charts are available here.

President Obama's "Robinhood" tax strategy isn't likely to yield much to the federal treasury.  Remember that 5% of taxpayers (with incomes of $160,000 or more annually) account for 61% of total tax revenues or about $676 billion annually.  There is a concept known as the "revenue maximizing rate" which suggests taxing the rich to pay for new spending is doomed to fail.  There is no tax for leisure and those at the highest brackets will simply work less and move investment portfolios into tax free municipal securities and other legal shelters to avoid taxation.

Then what?  Exactly.  Federal, state and local municipalities will have no options remaining. 

There's an old saying that applies here:

 Don't be guilty of planning to fail because you failed to plan!

GOP Chairman Strawn: It's time for leadership...

Gross mismanagement and abuse in our state government.  Chairman Strawn calls out the failure of Governor Chet Culver to lead and the Democrats in our legislature for their failure to act in the best interests of every day Iowans.

Well said Mr. Chairman...

Learning the ABC's of indoctrination...

Public schools are supposed to be a "safe place" to learn and yet we intuitively know just how much the teachers unions have indoctrinated our children from the very young age shown above to the university campuses around the country. In fact, my own college aged children have routinely informed me how hostile faculty were to conservative ideals and openly hostile to the Bush administration.

There were many who felt the Obama speech played in our schools early this month was an overreaction by conservatives.  I beg to disagree.

This clip shows me everything I need to know...

Christian Fong: Pass Transparency Bill Now!

Iowa gubernatorial candidate and Cedar Rapids businessman Christian Fong (R) today called for the Legislature and Governor to enact the Iowa Transparency Act in response to the Iowa Film Office tax credit fiasco.

“Obviously the Culver administration has failed at almost every level to provide an adequate level of oversight on the tax credits that were paid out under the Iowa film office, as Iowans were made aware this week. The lack of transparency and accountability in state government may have been averted if we had in place an online transparency system. With today’s news that errors in the tax credits were evident as early as July of this year, this could have been corrected months ago,” said Christian Fong.

House File 801 was introduced by Republicans in the Legislature and supported by a broad coalition including Iowans for Tax Relief during the legislative session earlier this year. The bill called for the creation of a searchable online transparency system where anyone could access state expenditures. Similar online transparency systems exist in other states, including Missouri. The bill passed the Iowa House but died in the Senate. A second attempt was also made to pass the bill as an amendment, again gaining approval in the House, but was eventually stripped out by the Democrat controlled State Senate.

Fong continued, “Governor Culver could have shown leadership on this bill during the session. He could have used his influence and bully pulpit to have put real accountability and transparency into state government, instead he sat back and taxpayers are on the hook for millions of dollars of questionable tax credits.”

Fong concluded, “The chorus of criticism of Governor Culver is loud and certainly well deserved. The Iowa Film tax credit saga is a textbook example of gross mismanagement. In the interests of offering a solution, I call on Governor Culver and legislative leaders to move swiftly to implement the Iowa Transparency bill, so we can open state government spending to millions of eyes across Iowa.”

The "New and Improved" United Nations

Tongue in cheek folks.  It's funny, but when you stop and listen to the UN General Assembly speeches in their entirety, it suddenly loses all humor and begs us to awaken from this bad dream and do something.  As I post, Muammar Qaddafi is beginning his second hour of a ridiculous speech that only proves the irrelevance of this once proud body.

I find it ironic that President Reagan sent a cruise missle into Qaddafi's tent not too long ago and now he's pitched a tent only miles from ground zero.  Makes you scratch your head doesn't it?

We don't need another Ronald Reagan...we need a Luke Skywalker!

Senator McConnell on Free Speech

Just this week, it was discovered that the Obama administration initiated a probe into Humana Health-care who communicated accurate and timely information to their customers about the proposed changes to the Medicare Advantage Plans that Humana provided to their customers.

Specifically, how the changes in health care proposed in DC would result in reduced benefits.  The White House immediately cries "foul" and attempts to shut down the protected speech that was exercised with their member/customers.

In steps Senator Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and in this video clip, chides the White House and his colleagues for their blatant disregard of free speech rights.

Ask Chuck...

Senator Chuck Grassley has proven one thing for sure, he understands the value of the new social media tools and proves here and now he knows how to use them and intends to stay connected.