” The blue and black designer dress that first lady Michelle Obama wore to Tuesday’s state dinner for the French president reportedly cost between $10,000 and $12,000, according to news media, which is more than the median annual household income worldwide of $9,733, and greater than the median income for households in at least 87 countries, according to data from Gallup. “
Let ’em eat cake … if they can afford it
” According to Gallup’s survey of incomes in 131 countries between 2006 and 2012, the median annual household income worldwide is $9,733. The median per-capita household income is $2,920.”
” “We are ruled by laws and not men. And no man is above the law — especially the President.”
This was the theme of Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) conversation with Glenn Beck on The Blaze’s radio show Tuesday, and the same message Cruz has vocalized since the President’s State of the Union address one week ago.
“ If a president can pick and choose which laws to follow, he is no longer a president,” Cruz said. “And that is dangerous.”
In the 25-minute segment (listen in the Sound Cloud above) Cruz gives several reasons he’s frustrated with the Administration. Here’s four: “
” “We’ve got this Constitution, we’ve got this whole thing about separation of powers,” Obama continued. “So there is no shortcut to politics, and there’s no shortcut to democracy.”
The reality isn’t so simple. Obama, a former constitutional law professor, was once skeptical of the aggressive use of presidential power. During the 2008 campaign, he accused President George W. Bush of regularly circumventing Congress. Yet as president, Obama has grown increasingly bold in his own use of executive action, at times to controversial effect.
The president (or his administration) has unilaterally changed elements of the Affordable Care Act (ACA); declared an anti-gay-rights law unconstitutional; lifted the threat of deportation for an entire class of undocumented immigrants; bypassed Senate confirmation of controversial nominees; waived compliance requirements in education law; and altered the work requirements under welfare reform. This month, the Obama administration took the highly unusual step of announcing that it will recognize gay marriages performed in Utah – even though Utah itself says it will not recognize them while the issue is pending in court.
Early in his presidency, Obama also expanded presidential warmaking powers, surveillance of the American public, and extrajudicial drone strikes on alleged terrorists outside the United States, including Americans – going beyond Mr. Bush’s own global war on terror following 9/11. But more recently, he has flexed his executive muscle more on domestic policy.”
” I realize this is an unhappy topic to be discussing during the Christmas season, but the American people need to realize that they are being pillaged by the insiders that controlWashington and live fat and easy lives at our expense.
If you don’t believe me, check out this map showing that 10 of the 15 richest counties in America are the ones surrounding our nation’s imperial capital.
Who would have guessed that the wages of sin are so high?
D.C., itself, isn’t on the list. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t a lot of people living large inside the District.
D.C. residents are enjoying a personal income boom. The District’s total personal income in 2012 was $47.28 billion, or $74,733 for each of its 632,323 residents, according to the Office of the Chief Financial Officer’s Economic and Revenue Trends report for November. The U.S. average per capita personal income was $43,725.”
” Want some other examples of profitable Washington sleaze? Here are some excerpts fromRich Tucker’s column for Real Clear Policy:
The real place to park your money is in Washington, D.C. That’s because the way to get ahead isn’t to work hard or make things; it’s to lobby Washington for special privileges. Look no further than the sweet deal the sugar industry gets. It’s spent about $50 million on federal campaign donations over the last five years. So that would average out to $10 million per year. Last year alone, the federal government spent $278 million on direct expenditures to sugar companies. That’s a great return on investment.”
” The town is turning on President Obama — and this is very bad news for this White House.
Republicans have waited five years for the moment to put the screws to Obama — and they have one-third of all congressional committees on the case now. Establishment Democrats, never big fans of this president to begin with, are starting to speak out. And reporters are tripping over themselves to condemn lies, bullying and shadiness in the Obama administration.
Obama’s aloof mien and holier-than-thou rhetoric have left him with little reservoir of good will, even among Democrats. And the press, after years of being accused of being soft on Obama while being berated by West Wing aides on matters big and small, now has every incentive to be as ruthless as can be.
This White House’s instinctive petulance, arrogance and defensiveness have all worked to isolate Obama at a time when he most needs a support system. “It feel like they don’t know what they’re here to do,” a former senior Obama administration official said. “When there’s no narrative, stuff like this consumes you.” “
“While asking for another 4 years as president, Obama has to pretend like the last 4 years didn’t happen. Take a musical behind the scenes look at the Obama White House! “
So, if the educated, literate and monied people are all going to be congregating around the “Capital City” and illiteracy (and the eventual poverty it will bring) are to be acceptable alternatives for some of us, then we are well on our way to living out The Hunger Games in all of its blithe vulgarity and hardscrabble pain.
The other thing that crossed my twitter timeline concerned the Killer Cop story about a Los Angeles police officer who is rampaging and murdering, and whose pro-gun control 21 page manifesto gives pally shout outs to Hillary Clinton, Chris Matthews, Barack Obama, (the cop loves Michelle Obama’s new bangs!) Charlie Sheen, and others. The manifesto and his bizarre addresses to public figures in news, entertainment and politics gives a sense that he’s lost touch with reality, of course, but so many of his references were television-related that I couldn’t help thinking, “this is your brain on non-stop pop-culture/political news.” I can imagine his ideological mirror writing similar praises to Limbaugh or Krauthammer. Madness precipitated by too much fantasy, too much glam-lionization of drug-addled, doltish celebrities, too much reality-obfuscating propaganda disguised as news.
” Much has been written so far about the choices that President Barack Obama made for his second term cabinet. His new appointees—Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) as secretary of state, White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew to Treasury, and former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) as secretary of defense—are people who have played a key role in Obama’s election or first term administration and are close friends of the president.
As president-elect, FDR picked a cabinet exclusively composed of people who were closes associates from New York or politicians who had helped him win his fight for the Democratic nomination or the general election in 1932.”
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