Obama's Popularity

News flash: President Obama's job approval rating is beginning to slip. From a high of 65%, it has slowly fallen to 59%. Of greater note, his job disapproval rating has grown from a low of less than 20% to the current 34%. You maybe surprised of this since the mainstream media does not report bad news for Barrack. So what is going on? My opinion, which is pure speculation, is that the is that the uninformed populace is starting to get a clue on where Obama wants to take this country. And they are not thrilled.

On average, the Obama supporter is not the most well informed voter. In fact, many did not distinguish Tina Fey or John Stewart comedy routines from actual news stories. The mainstream media contributed to this by repeated airing of current events along with the gags during nightly news. Also remember that Saturday Night Live was given a prime time evening time slot as the election neared. Many, including this writer, believe this was a conscious decision by the media leadership to help a far left Barrack get elected in a predominantly conservative country.

And while ABC and NBC provide the Obama administration with unprecedented access to unchallenged media time (for example the recent national health care infomercial), conservatives continue to hunker down in fear of losing even more of their power.

Let's look at Barrack's significant accomplishments since inauguration:
As promised, a tax cut was given to the vast majority of citizens. Did you notice it? Mine worked out to be around $7 a week. I think may of us tax payers were underwhelmed.

Closing of Guantanamo Bay was promised. A plan was never defined, so this promise remains unfulfilled and will likely stay that way until a governor raises his hand as says he will take the detainees. Not likely.

The Federal Government now owns a majority stake in Insurance, Financial, Automobile Manufacturer, and Mortgage lending businesses. This country's economy was built on capitalism, not nationalism or socialism. Many are now seeing this direction as a way of increasing the power of the national government. Do you hear that thump, thump thump? That's Thomas Jefferson spinning in his grave. Barrack will win the debate if he can turn these companies around and recover tax payer dollars. If he fails, we all drown in hyper-inflation caused by printing money.

A Cap and Trade bill is passing through the Congress. Couched as an environment bill, the true intent is to limit the amount of energy each citizen can afford. The United States will then be seen as good global citizens, using only their fair share of the worlds energy resources. Surprisingly, this proposal hits the poor the hardest as they will be the first live in homes that are too hot or too cold.

A Supreme Court nominee was presented to the Senate. Many thought Barrack would extend an olive branch to conservatives by nominating a middle of the road successor to Justice Kennedy. Instead, he went hard left with a judge who claims that experience gained by gender and race can be used to make constitutional decisions.

Troop drawdown in Iraq is underway. While far too early to tell if he can successfully withdraw from Iraq, Barrack's base feels he has moved far too slowly on this. His campaign timetable was to immediately begin drawing down troops.

Projected deficit has quadrupled and the national debt debt is expected to double. Never in American history has so much deficit spending or national debt (in real terms or as a percentage of GNP) been planned in the forward looking budget. I believe that nearly all Americans understand that debt is bad, and more debt is worse. Using the administration's own figures, Obama will rack up more debt in his 4 years, that all presidents from George Washington to George Bush combined.

National Health Care is now on under consideration. Many of the citizen supporters are not aware that Barrack's plan will not be free. Instead, they may be required to carry and pay for a level of health care insurance they currently do not. It will be interesting to see how fast they run from their "right" to health care.

When you consider the potential long term consequences of these initiatives, it is no wonder that his job approval rating is in decline. The wonder is that it is not falling at a faster rate. As more of his base becomes aware of the sharp left turn he is taking the country, they will begin to question it. As energy costs increase, they will feel the pain in their wallet they thought would be administered only to the "rich". In the end, Barrack's a job approval ratings will fall into the George Bush range. Does that make Barrack a bad president? Absolutely not. The contribution a president makes is sometimes not seen for years after his administration leaves office. Short term opinion polls are not good gauges on the effectiveness of an administration.

For those of us who bothered to listen to the presidential campaign carefully, this is no surprise. Obama's history and his rhetoric clearly indicated where he planned to take this country. Unfortunately, many chose to listen to the flowery speeches and bias media reporting instead of what the candidate was saying.

Learning from a Kindergarterner

It is easy for adults to ignore the simplicity and innocence of a child's mind. I remember an instance when this was made very clear to me. It was a brief moment I shared with a Kindergarten Sunday School student the Sunday immediately following the attacks of 9/11.

I was a helper, teacher or superintendent for the Kindergarten Sunday School department at my church for more than 20 years. I have many fond memories of that time which include the periods when both of my daughters passed through the class. I recalled one memory many times over the past few years. The student's name was Heather. She was 5 years old in September of 2001.

We had a routine each Sunday that started with songs, moved to a short voluntary prayer time, a lesson and ended with a simple craft. It was during prayer time that Heather offered to say a prayer. It went something like this:

"Jesus, please be with my fishy that died and was flushed down the toilet, and with the men who knocked down our buildings".

It hit me immediately. The distance between those two requests seemed like infinity. Heather had witnessed two significant events during the past week, and in her mind they were equivalent. And for both, she had asked Jesus to intervene. I would never have thought to ask for either. Praying for a dead pet fish seemed so insignificant, while praying for the dead hijackers was neither appealing or within the realm of possibility. Yet, a 5 year old had just asked God for both.

I think we can all learn from that. Nothing is too small or too large to take to God. Yet, we consistently apply our own filters to decide what requests are appropriate. Thanks Heather, for the lesson you taught that Sunday morning.

Tiller the Killer

It has now been several weeks since the unfortunate murder of George Tiller, (unfortunate for all but third trimester fetuses) . Reasonable pro-lifers will all agree that Scott Roeder was absolutely wrong in gunning down Tiller - nothing justifies cold blooded, pre-meditated murder. Roeder should face the full consequence of his action. But did Tiller's death make the world a better place? Yes, but only if others do not take his place. Equally unfortunate as Tiller's murder, other late term abortionists have already filled the demand left by Tiller's clinic closing.

I have been somewhat surprised by the idol worship of Tiller by the pro-abortion forces. I read one article where his quotes were held in high reverence. One quote went something like this: "You will never understand abortion until you known the heart of a woman". Sounds to me like a person trying to justify their work.

Abortion is killing a human life, and George Tiller was the Hitler of abortion. Many of his victims were viable and killed only for convenience. In my mind that makes him an opportunist. A person willing to sacrifice personal honor and decency to perform an under-served clientele - one that most doctors will not approach. Does that sound like a hero or unethical business man?

I'm with the Help Desk and I'm Here to Help

The company I work for recently converted all employee telephone communications from traditional wireline service to voice over IP. We now make and recieve voice calls using our PC and Microsoft Office Communicator. It actually works quite well, and the transition was far less painful than anyone thought it would be. There were a few issues. One that was especially Dilbertesque happened to a member of my team. The conversation with the internal help desk went like this:

• My employee on day 1: My new phone number doesn't work when people outside our system try to call me.
• Help desk on day 2: We resolved this issue by giving you a new phone number.
• My employee on day 2: What is my new phone number?
• Help desk on day 3: We resolved the issue of you not knowing your phone number by giving you back your old phone number.

Wasn't that the number with original problem?

The story had a happy ending on day 4 when he was assigned and informed of a new number that worked correctly.

Cap and T(ax)rade

So the House has now approved the Cap and Trade legislation that is supposed to make our planet a better place to live. Will Congress ever learn that you cannot tax business as the costs will simply be passed on to the customers of those businesses. I wonder how the Obama-maniacs will react when the cost to heat and cool their homes increases by 50%-100% in 2012? Will they still support their messiah when the money comes not from the wealthy, but from their own wallets? And in an election year! This law will (thankfully) never be enacted.