Empty Suit, Empty Promises, Lotta Strings

If you don't know by now Obama is recognized as the most liberal Senator out there where he voted 97% of the time with Democrats in Congress and during his campaigning helped by his Chicago thugs (the Clintons brought up "thugs" first when Hillary was still in contention for the race) he made a promise once he get into the White House. He broke two promises so far and that's even before he set foot inside the Oval Office.

The first broken promise was the one where the candidate of "change" was going to bring a new tone to Washington. This one has been broken by Obama's choice for Chief of Staff: Rahm Emanuel. Representative Emanuel (D- Illinois) is a hard core, far left, liberal as well as being an old Clinton hack. Not only that, but Emanuel is not a "new tone" kind of guy but is a Pit bull of epic proportions. The parallel would have been McCain claiming a new tone but picking Karl Rove as his Chief of Staff.

The second one was that Obama promised to not let lobbyists have a place in his new administration. He sure looks raring to go and give these lobbyists jobs like never before.

Despite campaign trail promises that special interests wouldn’t be a part of his administration, President-elect Barack Obama’s has sent signals to the lobbyists that they can get jobs with him.

...the overall message to the lobbying community appears to run counter to the Democratic senator’s campaign promise to keep special interest advocates at arms length.

With Obama's record of hardly ever reaching across the aisle, don't expect him do the same once he sets foot in the White House for the next four years. Just as don't expect the new Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, to be that open minded when he prefered to use a steak knife to point out to Clinton's enemies on a piece of paper.

RUSH LIMBAUGH: He is [a] good old-fashioned Chicago thug, just like Obama is a good old-fashioned Chicago thug. On the night of the Clinton election, Rahm Emanuel was so angry at the president's enemies that he stood up at a celebratory dinner with colleagues from the campaign -- Rahm Emanuel grabbed a steak knife and he began rattling off a list of betrayers, and as he listed their names, he shouted, ‘Dead! Dead! Dead!’ And he plunged the steak knife into the table after every name. This is not a bunch of people that are going to [govern from the center] --

And Obama wants Rahm to be Chief of Staff?

Obama. A man who wears an empty suit and says empty promises but sure has a lotta strings on him right now who thinks government is the answer by extending more control over the people. But according to a Rassmussen poll last month most people agree with Reagan's sentiment in his first inaugural address that "Government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."

So, conservatism isn't dead but very much alive and liberals know that else they wouldn't be wringing their hands about conservative talk radios and how liberals are planning to try a squelch them through an outdated "Fairness Doctrine."

Just watch, it'll all be about control over people in the Obama adminstration and not government of the people, by the people and for the people.

Obama Day?

This would be the most moronic suggestion of the day. Obama zealots are suggesting a new National holiday called "Obama Day" or something to that effect even before he has done anything in office. In fact, in North Korea there is a holiday to celebrate the current leader Kim Jong Il's birthday which is one of the country's most important holidays.

Thousands of people danced and brought flowers in North Korea's capital Friday to celebrate the 65th birthday of "dear leader" Kim Jong Il..

"Dear leader?" That reminds me of something.

Besides, we already have a National holiday called "President Day" which falls on February 18. There is no need for an "Obama Day" holiday. It'd be one of the most idiotic suggestion of the century.

Just when you thought you won the lottery...

Just unreal how people celebrate the Obamesiah's win or their expectation from "The One" on how he could ease the sufferings of his supporters.

At least five people were arrested across the city after Barack Obama's rally in Grant Park, including a woman who slapped a Chicago police officer, saying police couldn't arrest her anymore, prosecutors said today.

Most of the others celebrated the historic occasion with gunfire.

Celita Hart, 19, stood silently in court today when she appeared for a bond hearing.
Prosecutors said Hart, who is black, yelled " 'White [expletive], [expletive] McCain -you white police can't do nothing anymore.'" With that, she reached through the window of a squad car and slapped a white male officer in the face, according to Assistant State's Atty. Lorraine Scaduto.

Gunfire? In a populated area? Shooting in the sky I would surmise? You know gunfire in the air in the past have killed people when bullets came down killing a little girl or boy or somebody else. Anybody who do that sort of thing are morons.

Of course, people expect alot from the Obamesiah thinking he'll pay for their gas and pay off their mortgages, and who knows what else. Remember a bunch of angry Obama supporters demanding that they get paid for their work with Obama after he won the White House? And that was only two days after he won the election! Imagine when they have to wait for the Obamesiah thinking he made a promise on forking them over some free government, tax-payer supported money. They'll be so mad and disillusion I'm sure they'll start firing their guns in the air in anger that they've been duped.

Perhaps the concept called "hard work" or "an honest day's work for an honest pay" may come off a bit foreign for some of these people expecting the Obamesiah to somehow levitate money from the U.S. Treasury and give it to them instead?

Only time will tell and we probably won't have to wait that long to find out.

Obama's New Youth Corp Requirement?

Obama to set up a draft-like bill requiring 13 to 25 year olds to perform community service. Yes, REQUIRE.

The Obama Administration will call on Americans to serve in order to meet the nation’s challenges. President-Elect Obama will expand national service programs like AmeriCorps and Peace Corps and will create a new Classroom Corps to help teachers in underserved schools, as well as a new Health Corps, Clean Energy Corps, and Veterans Corps. Obama will call on citizens of all ages to serve America, by developing a plan to require 50 hours of community service in middle school and high school and 100 hours of community service in college every year. Obama will encourage retiring Americans to serve by improving programs available for individuals over age 55, while at the same time promoting youth programs such as Youth Build and Head Start.

So for each kid going through middle and high school will have to perform a total of 350 hours of community service over seven years (grades 6 - 12). Plus, if they decide to go to college they must perform an additional 400 hours of service for the four years they are in college. Or if you're a typical Gallaudet University student average length of stay would be 6 years which means Gallaudet University students MUST perform 600 hours of community service.

Now, let's look at the court system on how they punish offenders by sending them to do community work as a punishment.

eBay vote seller gets 50 hours of community service

Glenbrook teen gets 50 hours of community service in hazing

75 hours of community service for $1740.00 theft

Dutch court imposes 200 hours of community service for real-world punishment for virtual theft
Naomi Campbell to carry out 200 hours of community service after attacking police over a lost bag at Heathrow airport

O.J. Simpson's daughter was sentenced Wednesday to 50 hours of community service in a deal with prosecutors that stemmed from a confrontation with police during a fight outside a prep school basketball game.

The chair bounced off one spectator's head and then struck spectator Jennifer Bueno in the face, breaking her nose. Francisco was sentenced to 20 days in jail, 500 hours of community service..defense lawyer say hours "too much"..."highest I've ever seen". .

Requirement by New York University that a student found to have had illegal drugs in his room perform 500 hours of community service was deemed “draconian” by a state judge, who ordered the punishment reduced to 100 hours.

Two men who pleaded guilty to "tagging" buildings in Norfolk with spray paint have been sentenced to wear T-shirts identifying them as graffiti offenders while they perform 500 hours of community service.

Interesting. With an Obama administration he is going to force middle, high and college school kids to perform community service much like a judge who orders an offender many hours of community service. Also, where will the Obama administration get the money to run these programs which will rival that of our national defense budget that runs around $600 billion dollars a year. Where will the money come from? Why, from you guys. The middle class people who will see a tax increase when Obama promised there wouldn't be a tax increase on 95% of the working class.

You see, it's patriotric to pay higher taxes and it is also patriotic when the government basically drafts 13 to 25 year olds and force them to do required community service.

What will happen if one refuses to do community service as a requirement in school? Get punished by a judge and perform more community service?

Like I said and I will keep repeating this, this is just the beginning of what socialist and Marxist ideals are all about.

UPDATE: Obama also when he suggested this new youth program a few months back that he promised to boost the size of the military. With the new this program of Obama's where will he get the extra money? From you! The middle class people who will see a rise in taxes on their income.

UPDATE II: Oopsie. Change-O, Government-O drops the word "require" from their vocabulary in Obama's Change.gov website on "voluntary service" for Obama's new "Youth Corps" program.

Right.

UPDATE III: Obama forgot to remove "require" in one of his Change.gov website on service requirement,

Require 100 Hours of Service in College: Obama and Biden will establish a new American Opportunity Tax Credit that is worth $4,000 a year in exchange for 100 hours of public service a year.

Heck, I'd say that those that get their SSI do 100, 200 or even 500 hours of community service as an abled body person as part of the agreement in order to receive welfare help. Picking up trash might be a good start for some people.

UPDATE IV: Jeepers! Even my old high school, Berkley High, in a math tutoring forum did one person go off tangent and talked about how community requirement should be forced, er, required of students to do their community service as a "duty" and as part of their graduation requirement,

What I don't understand is why there isn't a general community service requirement for all students. All students, not just those in AP and Honors classes, need to learn that they can and should contribute to the community. They should be doing this community service, not just to get into college, but because it is their responsibility as a citizen in this society. This community service requirement ideally could be met even by helping to clean up and maintain vegetation on campus. I've been rather surprised that very few students currently participate in ongoing efforts to make the school a pleasant and attractive place. The students seem to be in an entitlement mode - it's someone else's job to provide for them. A community service requirement could help teach them that they have responsibilities to help themselves and the community.

No doubt by now that person is an Obama Koolaid drinker.

Even Maryland school system require community service as a requirement for graduation.

Maryland was the first state department of education to require community service...

UPDATE V: Looks like Gallaudet University once required "community service" in order to graduate back in 1997. But they changed that where it is no longer a requirement but there is a caveat in that,

22. What happened to the community service requirement?

Under the new curriculum, this has been replaced with the service learning requirement. Community service is no longer required for graduation under the new curriculum. Students following catalog requirements prior to 2007-08 will continue to follow the community service requirements.

Ok, Jim Jones, you have the floor. What flavor will they drink now?

UPDATE VI: Here's what Gallaudet University's requirement on community service in their 2006-2007 academic information handbook.

* Completion of the community service requirement. Every undergraduate student entering Gallaudet University will be required to contribute 80 hours of approved community service. The level of community service required will be adjusted for transfer and readmitted students. For transfer and readmitted Required community students entering with: service prior to graduation:
Senior standing 20 hours
Junior standing 40 hours
Sophomore standing 60 hours
Freshman standing 80 hours

Remember, it said "approved community service" and so it's like they didn't have much say on choosing. It's funny, you pay Gallaudet University the tuitions and fees and they say you must perform community service as a graduation requirement like picking up trash and do other unpaid work that a student actually had pay to get to learn about academics of their choice. I wonder why Gallaudet University dropped that requirement just last year?

Gallaudet Declining Enrollment

Interesting bit of information from the Gallaudet University's Fiscal Year 2009 Budget Request about the long term enrollment trend and reason why enrollment remain small today and why it continues to drop.

Enrollment trends. Undergraduate enrollment at Gallaudet has generally declined over the past 17 years from a high of 1,825 in 1990. In the fall of 2007 (fiscal year 2008), the enrollment of degree-seeking undergraduates was 1,080, graduate enrollment was 414, and enrollment of non-degree seeking students was 139, the lowest levels in well over 20 years. The total enrollment of 1,633 includes 1,236 full time students and 397 part-time students. Maintaining or increasing undergraduate enrollment is difficult for Gallaudet because of the literacy and communications challenges facing many of its prospective students and the need to achieve an appropriate balance between providing access to as many students as possible and maintaining high standards. In addition, students who are deaf and hard of hearing have increasing access to programs at regular postsecondary institutions and the majority of students who are deaf and hard of hearing are attending these programs.

Enrollment data for fiscal year 2009 will not become available until October of 2008. However, enrollment is likely to continue to decline in fiscal year 2009. This is partly due to lingering effects of the negative publicity resulting from student protests in fiscal years 2006 and 2007, negative reviews from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE), increasing mainstream options for students who are deaf, and the new, more stringent admission standards being implemented at Gallaudet in fiscal year 2008.

Note the bold highlighted letters in red.

From Gallaudet University's Program Report:

Measure 1.1 of 11: The number of full-time and part-time,
degree-seeking undergraduate students enrolled at Gallaudet
University. (Desired direction: increase) 1365

Year....Target...Actual.........................Status
1998......1,339......Measure not in place
1999......1,250.......1,300.........................Target Exceeded
2000.....1,250......1,318..........................Target Exceeded
2001.....1,250.......1,321.........................Target Exceeded
2002.....1,250......1,243.........................Did Not Meet Target
2003.....1,250......1,243.........................Did Not Meet Target
2004.....1,250......1,236.........................Did Not Meet Target
2005.....1,250......1,207..........................Did Not Meet Target
2006.....1,250......1,274..........................Target Exceeded
2007.....1,250......1,206..........................Did Not Meet Target
2008.....1,250......1,018..........................Did Not Meet Target
2009.....1,250....(October 2008)......... Pending

The declininng enrollment was due to a lot of factors and that was mostly because of increasing communication accessibility at many universities and colleges for a deaf and hard of hearing person to choose from. But it is interesting that the report blame the Gallaudet Protest in helping stifle enrollment, of course. The falling enrollment didn't occur over the last 5 years like some Deaf bloggers insist but rather over the last 19 years because of improving communication technology and services offered in many universities and colleges for deaf and hard of hearing students.

But note the precipitous drop for 2008 enrollment figure from 2006. A drop of almost 260 undergrad students. Ironically, 2006 year showed an uptick of undergrad enrollment from 1207 to 1274 students that exceeded target expectation for that year in 2006. That was also the year when the Gallaudet University protest occurred. Prospective students along with their parents saw the whole protest situation from the news media that left a bad taste in their mouths about Gallaudet University and decided to send their kids to a different university or college that have excellent communication services. We won't know what the enrollment figure for the 2008-2009 school year until sometime this year. But the G.U. Fiscal Year 2009 report warned that they expect more enrollment decline for the 2008-2009 school year.

Also, from 2000 to 2008 the amount of money appropriated to Gallaudet University from Congress went from $85 million dollars to $133 million dollars. And for 2009 budget Gallaudet University is asking an additional $600,000 from Congress on top of the $133 million dollars (see page 8). And they justify the additional money while enrollement declines? I wonder what will the budget request be like for 2010 when a Democrat majority led Congess in an Obama adminstration will do to help with the budget cuts? Will Gallaudet University be one of those soon-to-be budget cut victims and see abudget cut of, oh say, $50 million dollars for 2010? Maybe Obama will use a scalpel approach, a term he used extensively throughout his campaigning, and slice some numbers off for universities and colleges that get their fundings from Congress?

For the first time budget request for 2008 and 2009 remain the same at $59.2 billion dollars (which represents almost 2% of the entire Federal budget). Perhaps the additional $600,000 request by Gallaudet University for 2009 will not be met?

I'd say that Gallaudet University have about 2 years before their future increase budget requests will not be met but see a slash instead from a Democrat-controlled Congress. Will we see the start of a real decline of Gallaudet University and go below the devastating 1000 undergrads enrollment mark? After all, for 2007 - 2008 school year, enrollment figure was at 1018 students. Will Gallaudet University slowly be transformed into a university of mostly hearing students as a way to survive? The Department of Education already approved, starting in 2006, that Gallaudet University can admit up to 5% of the newly enrolled undergraduate students be hearing undergraduate students (see page 13).

Will Gallaudet University thrive or wither under an Obama administration? I'm thinking the latter. But congrats to those who "successful" participated in the Gallaudet protest which helped manage to scare away 260 prospective students from enrolling at Gallaudet University. We'll see how 2008-2009 enrollment year will pan out, and especially the 2009-2010 year when MSCHE reaffirmed Gallaudet’s Accreditation in June, 2008 which could mean an increased enrollment for undergraduate students. But we'll see.