So there’s this link on Drudge saying that Obama is threatening to use his State of the Union Address to vilify Republicans on the fiscal cliff or some other such nonsense. Well, there’s an easy way to deal with that:

Deny him the opportunity.

The President cannot speak to the House and Senate except by way of an invitation. So far as I understand it, he can’t even step foot onto the floor of the House without an invitation. So play hardball: deny him the invitation.

Every State of the Union address from Jefferson to Woodrow Wilson was written, not delivered as a speech. Wilson, a progressive who understood theatrics, began the modern tradition of delivering the address as a speech. But there is no requirement for the address to be delivered as a speech, or for the House to let the President deliver a speech.

So turn him down. And if you really want to show him up, have Boehner deliver a speech himself instead. Of course, you’d need balls to execute such a move, and one wonders whether our teary eyed leadership has such gumption. But we can always fantasize, can’t we?

So cute…

If this is a sign of the campaign to come from Rick Perry, he’s going to demolish everybody in his path, including Obama.

Observe:

• Going to Europe to win the Olympics for Chicago and losing.
• Predicting that unemployment wouldn’t rise above 8% if his stimulus passed, then having it stubbornly stay above 9%.
• Saying the Libyan intervention would be “days not weeks”. It took six months.
• Visiting several “green” companies touting them as the wave of the future, companies that have since gone bankrupt.
• Attempting to impose himself on top of the Republican presidential debate on Wednesday night, only to be rebuffed by the Speaker of the House (the President cannot demand time in front of congress – technically, he has to be invited).

This President has habit of puffing himself up when he doesn’t know what the outcome will be. Always a bad idea. Doesn’t reflect well on his management abilities. Doesn’t portend good things for his re-election prospects.

Underpromise. Overdeliver. People like you.
Overpromise. Repeatedly fail. People think you’re an impotent loser.

I’ve been giving some thought to Donald Trump. and his recent embrace of the birther hypothesis. Allow me to state the hypotheses and the evidence in favor of it as best I can in blockquote below:

Barack Obama was born in Kenya. His grandparents took measures during his life to cover up for that fact. The evidence is as follows:

• Barack Obama’s grandmother is on record as saying that she witnessed his birth in Kenya.
• Barack Obama has released a “certificate of live birth” which is an unsigned, unnumbered document, and quite distinct from a certified, signed and numbered birth certificate.
• Barack Obama apparently has a Connecticut social security number. Barack Obama has never lived in the state of Connecticut.
• No witnesses or hospital records can be found regarding his “Hawaiian” birth.
• Barack Obama has apparently spent $2 million fighting inquiries into his birth records.

Trump probably has the deepest or second deepest pockets of all the potential Republican candidates running next winter. And he certainly appears to be the only candidate who is seriously interested in this issue. I suspect that the only way to resolve the issue with any degree of certainty is to produce flight records showing that his mother was overseas during the time of Obama’s birth. And it is not outside of Donald Trump’s means to find such records, should they exist.

What I wonder is, would Trump really want to discover that Obama is not a natural born American. Suppose it were proven that Barack Obama was not qualified to be President of the United States. What would happen? I suppose most people figure that Biden would assume the presidency and that would be that.

Ahh, but not so fast. Obama would never have had a legitimate place on the ballot. So arguably, Biden was not legitimately elected either. That could mean McCain is President, since his ticket was legitimately on the ballot. Or it may mean that the election gets turned back to the house to decide, and they may elect the third in line to the presidency, John Boehner. Were John Boehner the president, then the Republicans presumably would nominate him next year and he would be the candidate in 2012, not Donald Trump. Moreover, Obama’s two supreme court nominations would be invalidated, as would TARP, Obamacare and Frank Dodd. Come to think of it, I rather like how this scenario is playing out.

Maybe Trump should forget running and just put his efforts into finding those flight records of Anne Dunham.

So I didn’t watch the SOTU speech, but everyone has been commenting on the Sputnik reference in it. So I thought I’d so a word search on the speech and read the reference:

Half a century ago, when the Soviets beat us into space with the launch of a satellite called Sputnik, we had no idea how we would beat them to the moon. The science wasn’t even there yet. NASA didn’t exist. But after investing in better research and education, we didn’t just surpass the Soviets; we unleashed a wave of innovation that created new industries and millions of new jobs.

This is our generation’s Sputnik moment. Two years ago, I said that we needed to reach a level of research and development we haven’t seen since the height of the Space Race. And in a few weeks, I will be sending a budget to Congress that helps us meet that goal. We’ll invest in biomedical research, information technology, and especially clean energy technology -– (applause) — an investment that will strengthen our security, protect our planet, and create countless new jobs for our people.

Already, we’re seeing the promise of renewable energy…

When Sputnik was launched, the American populace said, in 1950′s parlance, “Holy fucking shit, we need to do something!” And they launched the space program in response, culminating in a man on the moon. The president at the time, Dwight Eisenhower, thought little of the launch initially, and so it was his successor president who took action to assuage the fears of the populace.

Obama seems to take the Sputnik idea a bit too literally. Nobody is having a pant-shitting moment over the fact that China makes more windmills or solar panels or high-speed trains than we currently do. In fact, there were only two Sputnik like moments within my lifetime. The first was over 9-11, and the sense of urgency about Islamic terrorism has faded since then, to put it mildly.

The second such moment was the financial collapse that started in 2007. In particular, the fact that the facade was ripped off of our economy, wherein it was revealed that the United States economy much more closely resembles that of a South American basket case crony capitalist economy than the free-market meritocracy that we like to believe our economy has always been. That shock was doubled down upon by the massive spending programs in the stimulus and Obamacare, plus the arrival of the day of reckoning with the first of the Baby Boomers receiving Social Security and Medicare. That pant-shitting moment continues unabated, as the recession plods along and the federal government showing no interest in cutting back on its spending binge.

The fact that Obama couldn’t can’t see this, and instead thought that people were shitting their pants over solar panels and windmills indicates to me that he is almost certain to be replaced in 2012 by somebody who does see it, or at least claims to. No guarantee of course that said person will deliver us from calamity, but whoever it is, he/she will be sure to talk a good game at a minimum.

America is getting the point that its president doesn’t have a clue.

He doesn’t know how to stop the oil from spilling. He is bereft of ideas about how to create jobs in the aftermath of the recession. He has no idea how to keep the European financial crisis contained. He has no program for repaying the massive debt hole into which he has dug our nation without tax increases he must know will only deepen the pit.

Some presidents have failed because of their stubbornness (Johnson and Bush-43). Others because of their character flaws (Clinton and Nixon). Still others because of their insensitivity to domestic problems (Bush-41). But now we have a president who is failing because he is incompetent. It is Jimmy Carter all over again.

Read Dick Morris.

Cowardice, in general terms, is the perceived failure to demonstrate sufficient robustness in the face of a challenging situation. … wikipedia

I’m not even sure where to begin here. I’m just going to go stream of consciousness. A hit and run is when someone operating a motor vehicle hits a pedestrian with his car, and then flees the scene. The hit and run driver may have intended to hit the pedestrian, or it may have been accidental. But what unites all hit and run drivers is their cowardice; their fear of being held to account, of being made to stand in judgment for what they have done.

So too does our political class, exhibit much the same traits. Except with the political class the hit is almost always intentional. It’s just that most hits don’t get noticed. They’re narrowly focuses hits, designed to harm one unfavored group to support a crony. Most people don’t even notice it happening. And so when re-election time rolls around, the politician is not made to answer for anything he has done. The people vote to re-elect because he’s that nice, familiar, handsome face they’ve known for so long.

It’s only when the politician tries a hit on EVERYONE that the people wake up, take notice, and realize what’s been going on. It is then that scrutiny is applied to the politician, and that the people realize what rotten, thieving scumbags their elected class is filled with. It is then that they are motivated to pass judgment upon, to condemn, to send packing their elected leaders.

And of course, it is precisely at such a time, that the coward announces his retirement.

With the passage of the stimulus package, the purchase of General Motors, the attempted takeover of our health care industry, today’s political class has attempted the equivalent of not hitting a single pedestrian crossing the street, but plowing through a schoolyard full of playing children. They know they’ve been spotted behind the wheel, and that their constituents thirst justice. But they choose to drive off into the sunset. They dare not stand in judgment for what they have wrought.

And so it is time to call the cowards out, one by one, and pronounce judgment upon them here, in the public square of the Internet. For if we are denied the opportunity to show them the door, then the least we can do is verbally tar and feather the bastards while they happily show themselves the door.

Chris Dodd, CT

You, sir, are a thieving corrupt scumbag who is more responsible for our current economic predicament than anyone else on this list. That you, of all people, should choose not to run for re-election is an act of cowardice in the extreme. And to think you thought you were presidential material… I AM CALLING YOU OUT AS A COWARD!

Byron Dorgan, ND

YOU ARE A SPINELESS SNIVELING COWARD!!! THAT SENATE HEALTHCARE BILL IS ALL YOURS! RUN FOR RE-ELECTION AND ANSWER FOR WHAT YOU’VE DONE!!!

Roland Burris, IL

YOU’RE NOT A REAL SENATOR!!! YOU’RE A SEAT WARMER, BUT THAT DIDN’T STOP YOU FROM VOTING FOR THAT ATROCITY OF A HEALTH CARE BILL!!! STAND FORTH AND BE JUDGED, YOU COWARD!!!!!

Ted Kaufman/Beau Biden, DE

YOU TWO DISGUST ME!!! KAUFMAN, YOU TOO ARE A SEAT WARMER, YOU LOSER!!! AND BIDEN, YOU DECIDED TO NOT RUN FOR RE-ELECTION BEFORE YOU WERE EVEN ELECTED!!! THAT’S A WHOLE NEW LEVEL OF COWARDICE!!! STAND FORTH AND BE JUDGED ON THE HEALTHCARE ATROCITY THE TWO OF YOU SUPPORT!!!

Evan Bayh, IN

YOU ARE A DANDY BOY COWARD!!! YOU THOUGHT YOU COULD RUN FOR PRESIDENT BECAUSE YOU’RE GOOD LOOKING LIKE JOHN EDWARDS!!! WELL YOU’RE A COWARD LIKE HIM TOO!!! STAND FORTH AND BE JUDGED ON THE HEALTHCARE BILL YOU WEASELLY FRIGGING COWARD!!!

William Delahunt, MA, Venezuela

YOU FUCKING DISGUSTING SCUMBAG, PALLING AROUND WITH THAT THUG IN VENEZUELA (PELOSI’S WORDS, NOT MINE)!!! YOU’RE SCARED SHITLESS NOW THAT SCOTT BROWN GOT ELECTED, AND YOU SHOULD BE!!! YOU SUED YOUR WAY INTO “WINNING” YOUR FIRST CONGRESSIONAL PRIMARY, YOU VACATION IN SWINGER’S RESORTS, AND YOU LET MURDERERS LOOSE SO THEY COULD KILL AGAIN! EVERYONE IS WATCHING NOW, AND THEY KNOW WHAT KIND OF A SCUMBAG YOU ARE, SO STAND FORTH AND BE JUDGED, YOU COWARD!!!!!

Patrick “Patches” Kennedy, RI

YOU DRUNK FUCKING DOUCHEBAG!!! HOW DARE YOU CALL SCOTT BROWN’S ELECTION A JOKE!!! THE ONLY JOKE I SEE IS YOU EVER HAVING BEEN TREATED SERIOUSLY AS A HUMAN BEING, LET ALONE A MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES!!! YOU TOO, ARE SCARED OF SCOTT BROWN, AS WELL YOU SHOULD BE! STAND FORTH AND BE JUDGED YOU SLIMY ALCOHOLIC COWARD!!!!!

Bart Gordon, TN

YOU, SIR, ARE A GOOFY LOOKING COWARD!!!

John Tanner, TN

COWARD!!!

Brian Baird, WA

YOU MAY HAVE BEEN GIVEN A PASS ON VOTING FOR THE HEALTHCARE BILL BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULDN’T BE JUDGED, YOU COWARD!!!

Dennis Moore, KS

WHAT’S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS??? IT’S REPRESENTATIVE DENIS MOORE, YOU COWARD!!!

Diane Watson, CA

COWARD!!!

Vic Snyder, AR

YOU LOOK LIKE ROB ENDERLE OR SOME SLEAZY USED CAR SALESMAN!!! YOU ARE A COWARD!!!

Marion Berry, AR

HEALTH PROBLEMS MY ASS!!! TELL IT TO BOB BYRD!!! THE ONLY HEALTH PROBLEM YOU HAVE IS THAT STUPID HEALTHCARE BILL YOUR PARTY LEADERSHIP WANTS YOU TO PASS, YOU COWARD!!!

Wow, am I angry or what? I actually think this commenter at Gateway Pundit hit the nail on the head:

They are trying to make the anti-incumbent sentiment dissipate. Cant let the message be lost, “no matter what democrat it is, they suck!!”

Sing it loud, brother!

UPDATE: Forgot to mention, I’m already taking bets on whether or not Obama is a coward…

UPDATE 2: Apparently, Mikulski is next.

UPDATE 3: Now it’s Stupak and maybe Barney Frank. Cowards all.

So by electing a new President, who prostrated himself in front of a Saudi Monarch, offered to hold unconditional talks with the theocracy in Iran, told the Israelis to stop all settlement expansion, and apologized for everything the United States has ever done in Cairo, the muslim world likes us, right?

Of course not. Today Iran announced they are a nuclear state. But sometimes, pictures speak louder than words.

Hope and change. Say it with me now…

So this year marks Superbowl XLIV, or #44. Likewise, Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United States. This is the one and only time these numbers will ever intersect, unless something should happen to our current president and Joe Biden becomes #45 next year, in which case that will be the last time those two numbers will intersect unless something happens to Joe Biden, and so on. There must be some larger alchemical meaning in this numerical intersection, but I will leave it to my readership to attempt to determine just what that meaning is.

UPDATE: Speaking of which, I think it would be way cooler if presidents used Roman numerals like the Superbowl does, to designate themselves. Why doesn’t that happen?