Liberty Postings

I know I indicated in an earlier post that I want to focus on being positive this year.  I still do … really!  But, his speech tonight made me downright angry.

At first I thought that perhaps the stomach bug that had graced our home a couple of weeks ago was making a return visit, but I soon realized that my nausea was based on what was emanating from my television screen.

I can get past Vice-President Biden focusing real hard on trying to figure out what facial expression would be most appropriate at any given moment and Speaker Pelosi wiping the sides of her mouth over and over again with her thumb and finger (just gross!).  Those things are just cosmetic.

What really bothered me was that President Obama had the audacity to mention the “deficit of trust” in our country (which he either inherited and/or continues to perpetrated by the Republicans, of course) and to claim that his administration had taken action to “do our work openly.”    Please.  Don’t pretend like you think Americans deserve to know about what you are trying to accomplish in Washington. You’ll say that when you are aware that people are listening, because it sounds good, but you really don’t have enough respect for the American people to follow through with that pledge.

When running for President, then-Senator Barack Obama promised that he “will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days.”  He lied.  There have been numerous bills that became law with his signature that never saw one moment on a website, let alone five days (SCHIP legislation, Fair Pay Act, credit card reform, Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, economic stimulus bill, extension of SBA benefits … just to name a few bills that were not made accessible to the public for the promised time frame).  Were we just not supposed to notice?

During the campaign, then-Senator Barack Obama also promised to put all negotiations regarding health care reform on C-Span.  Ummm … not so much.  There have been plenty of discussions regarding health care done out of the public eye.  For example:

“The House and Senate plan to put together the final health care reform bill behind closed doors according to an agreement by top Democrats,” House Speaker Nanci Pelosi said today at the White House.

I understand there’s a separation of powers and that it’s the legislative branch, not the President and the executive branch, that controls the health care debate and bill creation.  However, we have not heard one word from the President advocating/requesting/imploring the Congress to make sure all health care discussions are put on C-Span, as he promised to do.

There are plenty of other problems that I had with tonight’s State of the Union speech, but the call for transparency got to me more than the rest.  Don’t stand up there with your holier-than-thou attitude preaching the need to respect the American people when your year-long track record has shown that you really couldn’t care less.

I liked Candidate Obama’s pledge to place all non-emergency bills online for review and comments before he would agree to sign them.  It’s one of the few campaign promises I actually wanted him to keep.  Maybe he really means it this time!!  Oh, please, President Obama … say it is so!  Sure, you’ve lied to us before but I still want to believe you.  I’ll take you back!  I’ll believe you when you say it will never happen again.  You’re going to be a real leader and not pass the buck when someone calls you out for not standing by your word.  Right?  I’ll turn on C-Span and log onto WhiteHouse.gov so that I’m ready and waiting!