Burnard: Obama on a roll
Written by Don Burnard | | opinion@toledofreepress.comPresident Obama has had a pretty good couple of weeks. First, he had the state of Hawaii release his “long form” birth certificate, which while not exactly silencing all of the birthers, it at least seems to have removed Donald Trump as a “serious” candidate in 2012. He followed it up with finally bringing Osama bin Laden to justice by ordering SEAL Team 6 to take him out, thus ending a decade-long search for the perpetrator of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and a number of other terrorist acts.
Many of the GOP talking heads were upset that W. didn’t get his proper due for his part in the hunt for bin Laden. I would remind them that the two times (that we know of) that the Bush administration had him in the proverbial crosshairs, it punted to the Afghans to do the job allowing him to escape, because the administration feared it would upset the Pakistani or the Afghan governments if it allowed our military to take him out. Later, when asked about the search for bin Laden, W. said that quite frankly, he didn’t lose a lot of sleep worrying about capturing bin Laden, and went so far as to dismantle the team tasked with capturing or killing him.
Well, a Democratic president that the GOP continually derided as weak on terror and a weak Commander in Chief, managed to do in two years what all the vaunted neocons couldn’t do in eight years. Well done, Mr. President. Well done, Special Forces.
If we are going to get our own country back on track, we need the President to pay attention to the economy and the attack on the middle class by the elite business interest billionaires that are trying to demonize even the concept of government.
Fortune magazine released the 2011 Fortune 500 rankings May 5. It surveyed the growth and profits of the top 500 American corporations.
“All told, the Fortune 500 generated nearly $10.8 trillion in total revenues last year, up 10.5 percent. Total profits soared 81 percent. But guess who didn’t benefit much from this giant wave of cash? Millions of U.S. workers stuck mired in a stagnant job market. Nevertheless, we’ve rarely seen such a stark gulf between the fortunes of the 500 and those of ordinary Americans,” Forbes reported.
These are many of the same corporations that we are supposed to feel sorry for, to the point that in Ohio, we need to attack police, firefighters, teachers, public employees, construction workers, and on and on, so they can make even more for the elite. We’re being sold a bill of goods on behalf of modern robber barons by the elected officials who are supposed to represent us. They tell us that taxes on these profits are bad and will kill jobs! It appears to me that they’re doing pretty well, so where are the jobs that they promised us in the campaigns? Most of these corporations paid less taxes than you did last year! Some even got millions of our tax dollars back in rebates.
But it still isn’t enough. Forget your family, they need more. Let’s talk about King John’s claim that we need to lower taxes so businesses will flock to Ohio. An April 21 article in The Blade said that two surveys found that Ohio had the third best tax rates on new business investments, behind only Maine and Oregon, and the ninth best business tax system in the nation, and the best in the Northeast quadrant. This hardly seems to be any kind of rationalization for the draconian measures that the Kasich administration is peddling. The truth of the matter is it all comes down to basic greed. The public and the public good be damned. This is what happens when we elect politicians who are in it for the money rather than the public good. Think of the revenues this state, and most the other states would have if we had the millions of unemployed working in decent paying jobs and paying taxes. Think of what our situation would be if these corporations and the elites paid their fair share of taxes. Forget the slogans. Where are the jobs?
Email columnist Don Burnard at letters@toledofreepress.com.
Tags: Barack Obama, Don Burnard, The Hot Corner
So I take it, Mr Burnard, the you will be voting for either a Libertarian or Tea-Party candidate in 2012? For what you describe are the methods of both the Republican and Democrat parties, which both have partners in business (read campaign contributors) who are rewarded by the elected winners. As the president himself said not too long ago, “we’ve got to reward our friends, and punish our enemies”; and he wasn’t referring to foreign enemies.
This comment was posted on May 15th, 2011 at 10:46 amAnd if government employee unions are going to donate exclusively to Democrats, isn’t it reasonable that the other major party will attack those unions?
But maybe you like it that US taxpayers bailout AIG, who then turns around and supports Airbus..http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2011/05/12/airbus-beats-boeing.aspx; while the president attacks on Boeing’s other flank, and in the process kills SC jobs.
I think you read The Blade too much (can you come up with a real reference for those stats you mention). And I think you support a president who, with his brand of favoritism, is bringing economic ruin to this country.
Both Carl and Don make good points! Until we get the money out of politics nothing will change. The same shell game year after year as long as I can remember. The only problem now is we can’t afford the shenanigans any longer we need to start with campaign finance reform. Big money has ruined our country as it did in Teddy Roosevelt’s day with his battle with robber barons. Until we control the money nothing will change for average Americans.
This comment was posted on May 16th, 2011 at 9:34 amOweBaMaoscare ROLLS !!!
With over 1,372 WAIVERS from OwebaMaoscare ?!
You know , the 3,000 page Neofascist Law,no one read because,” we had to pass it to see what was in it “, crap ?!
Brought to us all by Nazi Pelosi and fellow travelers in the Demonrat Criminal Party of AmeriKa !
OweBaMao ROLLS !
With, the worst performing stocks in America !
NUMBER ONE WORST STOCK : Fannie Mae, the Federal Government “bank” , that bought all the toxic loans to bummers who couldn’t possibly ever pay them.
Fannie Mae lost -42.1% for ten years STRAIGHT , under Demonrat management,from the Demonrat donors who got the gravy jobs there !?
They loaned money to worthless borrowers upon threats from Slick Willy, his H.U.D. Sec. Cuomo, Barney Fwank, and Chris Dodd, to regulate and to litigate the banks who didn’t loan money out to dead beats ?!
This all caused the current economic Great Demonrat Created Depression II, we are all facing now !
NUMBER TWO WORST STOCK:Freddie Mac !!!
Losing a WHOPPING -40.8 % for ten years straight.
Under the horrific management of more Demonrat donors, who got these gravy do-nothing jobs !
And, to top it all of, the 6 leading criminal Demonrats, who ruined these two ” banks”, received $32 MILLION for their total and complete mismanagement of them ?!
Which PROVES, that Demonrats love & reward FAILURE and absolutely HATE and punish success !!!
Hey, how’s the $5.00 a gallon for gas doing you Hopeless and Spare Change, sycophants doing you NOW !!!???
What about the 32 % of home values lost under OweBaMao ?
2012, is so far away in time,OweBaMao, still has time to turn America, into Mexico !!!
YEEE HAAAA !!!!
Don’t answer….
This comment was posted on May 16th, 2011 at 10:55 amOhio, under former prison psychologist Gov. Strickland, lost 800,000 jobs .
And, TFPS’s unionized bureaucrat, said NOTHING !!!
With only 3 months into office, Gov. Kasich, has brought LIFE, back into this moribund State .
And, TFP’s do nothing,unionized Machiavellian, SCREAMS like the diaper rashed adolescent , all Demonrats, are ?!
Oh well, with over 3.75 years left in office, expect to read and to reread the same old apocryphal madness, over and over and over and over and over and over , again and again and again….until DonMao, converts !!!
This comment was posted on May 16th, 2011 at 11:10 amLet’s get money out of politics ?!
Union Bureaucrat Obfuscation :Class 101
AFSCME : $42.8 million…98% to Demonrats !
IBEW : $32.3 million…97% to Demonrats !
NEA : $30.6 million…97% to Demonrats !
AAJ : $32.2 million…(0 % to Demonrats !
Laborers Union : $28.5 million 92%, to Dims !
Teamsters:$28.5 million….93% to Dims !
SEIU : $28.4 million…95 % to Demonrats !
Carpenters/ Joiners Union : $28.3 milluion…89% to Demonrats !
AFT : $27.7 million…98 % to Demonrats !
CWA : $27.7 million…98 % to Demonrats !
UNION BUREAUCRATS : Steal from their members who are only 52 % Demonrats, to virtually give it all to radical Demonrat, job killers ?!
AMAZING GREED , from unionized bureaucrats, who produce absolutely NOTHING and, never have !!!
This comment was posted on May 16th, 2011 at 11:19 amFrom a fact standpoint, the accusation was 400,000 not 800,000 jobs and that claim was ruled “half-true” by PolitiFact.
LINK
This comment was posted on May 16th, 2011 at 11:25 amOweBaMao Rolls On !!
Fourth WORST STOCK : A.I.G. , OweBaMao’s pet insurer, to bailout his fellow union thieves and his Wall Street Ivy League, cronies !
So, even with BILLIONS of a tax payer subsidized bailout,
A.I.G., still loses -29% , for ten straight years !?
It would takes tons of economic edification, for dissolute union bureaucrats, leftist “journalists”, and Demonrats, to figure out the connection here.
So, I won’t even attempt to assist them in their delusional understanding that they are supporting JOB KILLERS, dressed up as benevolent community organizers !
Demonrats, easily fooled by other fools on the psychotic Left ?!
This comment was posted on May 16th, 2011 at 12:04 pmOh, A.I.G., the favored insurer to OweBaMao’s Fascist-Economic Nightmare, was the 3rd biggest stock loser .
It lost an average -29% , for the last ten years !!!???
You simply have to loath Demonrat, economics.
After all, it has done sooooo horribly in Little Detroit and sadly, what was once America !
Plus, the WORST… has yet to HIT !!!!
OWEBAMAO: RAIDS PRIVATE PENSIONS !!!!
This comment was posted on May 16th, 2011 at 2:37 pmTo T.F.P.’s, paid “fact checker “.
[ One liberal censor, of dubious integrity, by the bye.]
I’ll wager any amount of dough you can muster , that my figure of 800,000 jobs lost under Strickland, is far closer to reality than yours of 400,000, is !
” Coon, certainly…you BOAST !!” Says the debate moderator !
Yeah well since, the self employed are NEVER counted in the unemployment rates. Your figure is woefully under counted !
And, since the under employed and part time ,are counted as working full time again, your figure is so far off as to be a JOKE !!
Being a self employed registered representative, a self employed farmer, and someone who has numerous self employed clients who would corroborate my figures…empirically and factually…I am absolutely…much more correct !
A liberal censor as a ” fact checker”, raises the obvious question of, who do you work for ?
Radical job killers in the Demonrat Criminal Party of AmeriKa or, T.F.P. ?
This comment was posted on May 17th, 2011 at 10:38 amTy Coon on a roll! As for Mr. Burnard, let’s see if I can follow his train of thought.
1. Birth certificate – Point conceded.
2. Rubbing out Osama bin Hidin – OK for Obama to invade another country, but not (by implication) for Bush to do it. Obama gets all the credit for acting on the intelligence that the Bush administration gathered, as if there was no intel in place two years ago.
3. Bush wrong to sleep while bin Laden was hiding. Obama right to vow to not rest and then take myriad vacations before hit was made.
4. Bush dismantles strike force – sorry, this came up empty in searches for documentation.
End of Obama on a Roll section. Jump to the economy.
1. President has to pay attention to economy. Yes, yes.
2. Elite business interests attacking middle class and demonizing concept of government – Anarchists have taken over the business world!
3. Profits bemoaned – if, after a crushing recession in which profits nosedived, you have a problem with them recovering, then it follows that profits are wrong.
4. Stagnant job market bemoaned – and Obama’s policies have nothing to do with it.
5. We must attack emergency services, teachers and public employees for corporate profits – non sequitur.
6. We must attack construction workers for same reason – Progressives have kept construction employment deeply depressed.
7. Politicians protecting the robber barons – like Obama protects his buddies at GE and Goldman Sachs.
8. Where are the jobs that the politicians promised us? – Tell you what, let’s go ask Obama, Senator Brown, Congresswoman Kaptur and company.
9. Big corporations pay no taxes – GE was one, so why no condemnation of Obama’s coziness with them?
10. Ohio has good tax rates for business – remarkable, since the 2011 State Business Tax Climate Index published last October ranks the state 46th nationwide in business friendliness concerning taxes. And this is not to mention the crushing regulatory burden (that “government” you say the anarchists of the business world want to abolish).
11. More people working means higher tax revenues – spoken like a conservative!
12. Fair share of taxes for the “elites” – you’re right, it’s not fair that the top one percent of taxpayers pay 38 percent of income tax revenues collected while 36.4% of taxpayers paid no net income tax (all for tax year 2008). How about defining “fair share” to mean everyone pay the same percentage?
13. (Combining two scattered points:) Tax businesses more, and they will create more jobs.
Progressive thought on display. Gotta love it.
This comment was posted on May 17th, 2011 at 8:50 pmWho ( what ) would you rather be ?
A terrorist water-boarded by GW ? Or, a terrorist shot in the face by OweBaMao ?
A home value at the highest in recorded American history under GW ? Or, a home that’s lost 32% under OweBaMao ?
An employed person under GW ? Or, an unemployed one under OweBaMao ?
A gallon of gas under GW ? Or, a gallon of gas under OweBaMao ?
A sock or bond under GW ? Or, a stock or bond under OweBaMao ?
GOD, this list could go on for ever, couldn’t it ?
Thought so….
REMEMBER: RE-ELECT OweBaMao !!! That is, if you are as insipid as anyone who has ever LIVED !!!!
This comment was posted on May 18th, 2011 at 11:15 amOne last thing: If “Where are the jobs” is going to be your slogan – after you’ve told us to forget slogans – then you really need to ask that of Congresswoman Kaptur. You’re holding the lack of job creation agaisnt Giovernor Kasich after he;s been in office for just over four months. Why aren’t you asking this of Ms. Kaptur, who has been in office for 28 years, since “where are the jobs” are your criteria for a politician’s success or failure?
From her victory speech last November: ““This year we flew into the eye of the storm and we never yielded . . . All across our country the American people sent a message that Washington better focus on jobs, on our economy, on the future of the middle class. People were trying to send a message. They have sent a message, we better listen.” She isn’t listening, and her district is still in dire straits, just as it has been for years.
By the way – her meteoroligcal metaphor has truth to it. The eye is the relatively calm center of the hurricane. If that’s where she is, she must now fly back out through the worst the storm can bring to bear.
This comment was posted on May 18th, 2011 at 8:34 pmTo T.F.P., Thank you for posting the apocryphal author’s picture of this article.
I was under the impression that he may have been a fellow student with me as a Wildcat,in Illinois.
However, that fellow student was a black militant- anarchist,who one day, refused to put out a rather large joint in an economics class ?!
When the fuzz arrived to pinch him.
[ I simply had to add to the situation !]
I protested the arrest stating that, the fellow student was merely practicing a religious custom…absolutely covered under our U.S. Constitution !
And, for that , I was also arrested for ” interfering with official fuzz biz ” ?!
Oh well, the charge was dismissed and the fellow Wildcat student is obviously, not DonMao !!!
Unless that is, Ol’ DonMao, had a thorough skin bleaching procedure done,since 1979 ??!!
This comment was posted on May 19th, 2011 at 11:48 amGive ‘em he11, TyCoon! You’ve got the libs on the run. Why am I not suprised that Don Bunard has an shaggy Unabomber beard? One photo sure explains a lot. Guess he left off his tin foil hat for the closeup.
This comment was posted on May 19th, 2011 at 8:53 pmI just love when all you blatherers who are too scared to give your names rant on here. C’mon cowards, stand up and put your real names on your “beliefs”!I think the tin foil should be in your own tri-corner “patriot” hats :)
This comment was posted on May 20th, 2011 at 10:30 pmWill you flee to another State, if we don’t do as you demand ?!
You fleebaggers, are a whiny lot.
Plus, who in their right mind would ever give out their personal information to a union thug ?!
You unionized bureaucratic-zeroes are very violent, very foul mouthed, and hate so bloody much…it is self preservation to be anon !!!
This comment was posted on May 25th, 2011 at 2:04 pm