Delusions of Grandeur » Biden

Swine Flu or 2009 H1N1?

mcangeli — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 19:15:56 +0000

So there’s been a lot of nothing in the news lately (and twitter noise) about Swine Flu (or 2009 H1N1 as those in the know are calling it). I wanted to do a little more research in to this mysterious aliment that seems to have the world in a tizzy so I hit everyone’s favorite news source CNN.

Luckily, CNN has a plethora of articles on the mysterious flu everyone calls Swine. No, Virginia, you cannot get the flu from a door knob, but you could get it by sucking face with someone who has it. Or, if you’re VP Biden, being in a confined space like an airplane or bathroom, or coat closet with some one who has it. Surprisingly, there are only about 109 known cases in the US and 236 in the world. There has only been one H1N1 related death so far in the states, but more are “predicted”.

In Comparison, there have only been 53 (Pediatric) Deaths caused by the normal flu virus this season. So yea. By the way, I’m not a doctor.

It seems to me though, that if you want to stay safe, avoid planes, trains, busses, offices, other people. Follow Biden’s example and hole yourself up in your house (dark corner of the basement is preferred) until the WHO (not the band, the World Health Organization) says its safe to come outside without a mask on. Or, just wash your hands constantly. Oh, and void kissing Pigs.

The Terrible Two!

mcangeli — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:19:39 +0000

Well, the Terrible Twosome from the Left seem to be at it again. Obama was finally backed in to a corner where he had to admit that he was friendly with ACORN and had given them some dough. Of course, the fact that this wasn’t mentioned on his website was blamed mostly on a low level staffer (what else are they good for right?) though many are beginning to speculate if this could be the beginning of the end for the once chosen one. He’s begun making more and more gaffes on the trail this month like the one over the weekend with Plumber Joe (Joe the Plumber is so passe) where he basically said he wants to take the wealth and spread it around.

Kind of like Biden did with campaign funds and his family. These two seem to be a real pair. Don’t they? Obama claims he was on the forefront of sounding the alarm with regards to Fannie and Freddy, claiming he wrote a letter to the Sec. Tres. Why then, didn’t he stand up and do something then? Instead, it appears he continued his record of voting “present” when it served him best. By writing the letter he could effectivly claim to have done something with out having to actually do anything at all. Don’t you wish it worked that way for all of us?

Oh and its interesting to note that the man behind getting W. elected isn’t so sure that this election is over yet despite the MSM all but having an inauguration party.

Change of Course

mcangeli — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 04:39:13 +0000

I was sitting in the hot tub tonight, imbibing in a rum and coke (yes, Coca-Cola) and a cigar as I’m prone to do every so often when I need some “down” time and it dawned on me that the blog here can be put to a better use for the next 31 days. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to convince people that McCain/Palin is a good choice. By this point, I think though, most people have made up their minds as to who they’re going to pull the level for on November 4th unfortunate as that may be. After all, as Brian Williams said on Letterman tonight, a week in a Presidential Campaign is literally a year (look at the past two if you need any proof) and a lot of things can change.

Instead of focusing on why McCain/Palin would be a better choice for this country, I’m going to focus, at least five posts a week (figure one a day during the work week) on why Obama/Biden are a bad fit for the country. We’ll look at things like their policies, their beliefs, their associations and more. I’m going to work hard to try and sway you to at least reevaluate why you’re planning to vote for who you’re planning on voting for.

Parts won’t be too easy, other parts won’t be too hard. Its hard to argue with Biden’s time in the senate, but its not hard to argue with his view on patriotism, taxes and other areas. With Obama, it shouldn’t be too hard to argue with anything.

We’ll start today with looking at the tax returns for the two VP candidates. Biden’s were released earlier this month and show that the Bidens earned approximately $320,000 in 2006 and they paid approximately $66,000 in taxes. For charitable contributions, the Bidens biggest year of giving was 2007 in which they gave a whoping $995 to charity. Now, even if he was following the Christian principle of tithing (which is %10) he should have given approximately $32,000.

On the other hand, the Palin family earned approximately $170,000 in 2007 (about $160,000 in 2006) and paid $25,000 in taxes in 2007. They donated approximately $8200 to charity (figure church and other charities) over a two year period. If I did my math right, they donated approximately 9 times the amount that Biden has in roughly the same period.

I’d point out that Obama donated about 5.6% of their pretax earnings to charity and McCain donated approximately 26% of his earnings in the same time period. I think before Biden talks about paying taxes as the patriotic thing to do, he should look at increasing his donations to charities that help more people.

Bailouts, Crisises and Debates! Oh My!!

mcangeli — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 16:15:27 +0000

The past two weeks has been a little bit of a mess. From botched interviews by Palin to the Democrats trying to pin the blame for the current economic crisis on the Bush Administration and the GOP to the original “bailout” bill failing miserably things have not gone well in the world of politics until last night. If you missed it, I suggest you google for the Vice Presidential Debate and watch the whole thing in its entirety. It was far more entertaining than the Presidential Debate last week and Ms. Palin (or should I dare say, Madame Vice President) definitely brought her A game to the debate floor.

She was charming, happy and down to earth whereas Biden seemed to be most of the time angered that he had to debate her and at times he seemed frustrated. Its true, both sides had their share of fibs, though it seems that Biden may have had more than Palin. In all, the night was probably a draw as far as the points go, with each side proclaiming their person the victor, when in fact, I think the American people actually won that one last night. Hopefully, the days of keeping palin quiet are over and the McCain camp will let her loose. Its not like she can do any worse than she or John have done over the past couple of weeks.

Wednesday we saw the approval of the “Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.” For those who want a shorter name, just call it the “Lets Screw America Act”. Here’s some of the stuff that the senate included:

The Democrats wanted a new Wall Street tax, which would essentially set a fee on securities transactions, in order to recover the potential costs for the taxpayers. The fee would be assessed after five years if the Congressional Budget Office determined that the taxpayers lost money in this bailout. In the end, the Democrats didn’t get their way. Instead, the next president will be responsible for proposing to Congress his plan to pay the taxpayers for any loses. Can you imagine what this plan will look like if Obama wins?
The $700 billion will be allocated in stages. $250 will be available immediately, $100 billion available “upon report to Congress,” and $350 billion “available only upon Congressional action.”
The good news … it seems as though Republicans have managed to kill the proposal to devote 20% of any potential profits to community organizations like ACORN
There will be new executive compensation requirements including “no multi-million dollar golden parachutes”
The bill contains some provisions to help families avoid foreclosures by creating a plan to “encourage services of mortgages to modify loans”
It will expand the range of firms that can sell troubled assets to the government to include pension plans, local governments and community banks serving “low- and middle-income families.”

The Battle Heightens

mcangeli — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 15:52:47 +0000

In case you missed it last night, Obama made his acceptance speech last night and while it reads to be a fairly good speech and the critics have all had nothing but praise, as I read through it, it reeked of the same old Democratic rhetoric that they’ve been spewing for years. Promising change, promising more government interference in your life and promising more wealth redistribution. The funny thing is that he wasn’t too specific in how he’s going to pay for it all.

I won’t go in to the fact that its not the Government’s job to provide for me and my own, nor is it expected. The problem lies in the fact that as a country we’ve strayed from the beliefs that helped form this country more than two centuries ago. The willingness to work hard has been thrown away and its become an “Its my right” country.

It wasn’t unexpected that the GOP was spinning the speech as soon as it started. The Dems will be doing the same thing next week in Minnesota. Its expected. They managed to do a good job poking holes in the promises (its not the government’s job to help automakers, the Japanese and European automakers aren’t having a problem at all) Obama was making. It will be interesting to see (if he makes it to the office) how many of those promises actually materialize. For S&G if you want to see how Obama voted while in the senate (he missed more than 50% of the votes this year) head over to Project Vote Smart.

I did like the fact that McCain congratulated Obama on the historic feat he accomplished (he did manage to become the first black man nominated for the presidency) and the fact that the acceptance speech was on the anniversary of King’s I have a Dream speech.

In other FLIPPING AWESOME news, McCain is set to announce that Sarah Palin is going to be his VP Candidate. She’s a relatively new governor for the State of Alaska and she seems to bring a lot to the table as a candidate. It will be interesting to see exactly how this plays out and while I didn’t watch more than five minutes of the DNCC, I’ll be tuned in to the GOP Convention every night.

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Buyers Remorse

mcangeli — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 19:15:32 +0000

Day two of the DNC Convention is under way in Denver (lovely city! Shame about the Liberals though) and I have to wonder (as many outside the liberal mindset do) if the Dems should be feeling any buyer’s remorse yet or if that will set in after the close of the convention on Friday. Thousands of liberals will wake up Friday morning with that cheap wine hangover haze wondering what led them to sleep with the campus fatty.

Part of the problem stems from the fact that they’re pulling behind a virtual unknown in the realm of politics. Another issue may be the fact that his VP candidate has publicly said that Obama is not ready to be President. Then there’s the fact that as far as the two of them (Obama/Biden) go, there is little difference ideologically (they have almost identical views on everything) and there isn’t much for the moderate Democrat to stand behind.

Biden’s track record is proven and he’s fairly well liked inside the beltway. He knows his way around Washington politics and has even made a run a the office himself. He’s fairly well suited for the position. Obama on the other hand, may be little more then fancy rhetoric. Can anyone name *ANYTHING* productive that he has done during his tenure in the senate? ANYONE??

And the Veep is….

mcangeli — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 14:46:47 +0000

Despite his claims earlier in the week that he “isn’t the guy”, it appears that Joe Biden is in fact the guy. Its interesting to note that Obama choose someone who just a year ago said that “Barack Obama is not ready to be president”. What prompted the change? Well, maybe the fact that he’s now Number one to Obama’s Captain Pickard. Maybe the fact that he thinks Obama may not last long in the office and this is his chance to become President. Who knows.

What is apparent is that this move by the Obama Camp provides some much needed Foreign policy experience to a group that was lacking. Its known that Obama does not have the strongest (or any for that matter) FP background, being a 2nd year Senator from Illinois and this adds some much needed depth to his campaign. Is it enough?

A poll earlier this week had McCain up by 5 points, however at this point in the race it could go either way and I’m not too thrilled about either main party candidate (did you know that Bob Barr is running?) and I’m getting tired of picking the lesser of two evils. Obama’s Social Welfare programs do not bode well for the country (bordering on bringing mass socialism to the States) and I’m not too keen on another 4 years of the same old GOP drivel.

Maybe if a democrat is elected President, the rest of the country will wake up and realize the mistake they made by giving control of the House to the Dems. Things seemed to work remarkably well when Clinton was in the White House and the GOP held the House. Unfortunately, I think that this political season will have too big an effect on the future of America.