Barack Obama's Dictator Fantasy

Obama Stalin Hitler
Image: Sin of Hubris

We can assume that many American Presidents have entertained secret dictator fantasies, but it is rare that we actually get to catch one of them admitting to their dictator dreams in public. When speaking to the National Council of La Raza in Washington DC on July 25, 2011, Barack Obama said, “Believe me, the idea of doing things on my own is very tempting. I promise you not just on immigration reform. But that's not how our system works.”

In this statement, we can see Obama's mentality. Not only does Obama desire to impose his agenda without having to win approval, but his statement suggests he thinks he could actually do it if he gave into the temptation. Not only does Obama desire absolute power, he seems to believe he actually has it, and we are just lucky he has the integrity to not give into the temptation to use it.

This Barack Obama is a very creepy man. Every time we get a look into his mind, we find a disturbing set of values based on a belief system that is far out-of-step with that of most Americans. If this is the sort of thing Barack Obama says out loud, what sort of horrible concepts is he keeping to himself?

Barack Obama, the Walking Headache

Barack Obama, the Walking Headache

Peggy Noonan has a tremendous gift for phrasing her thoughts in just the right way. In her recent article, "Out of the Way, Please, Mr. President," Noonan brilliantly described Barack Obama by writing, "He's like a walking headache."

To date, no one has done such a thorough and accurate job capturing the essence of Barack Obama and the exasperatingly immature way this amateur, bratty, incompetent, and petty man-child handles his job as President. Excellent work, Peggy Noonan.

Otis Rolley Proposes Potential 500% Tax on Ammunition

Otis Rolly, Mr. Bullet Tax

Otis Rolley is a Democrat candidate for Mayor of Baltimore. He will be on the ballot in the September primary. Rolley wants to place a $1.00 tax on each round of ammunition sold in Baltimore. The measure has been dubbed the "bullet tax."

Now ammunition prices do vary widely depending on quality, feature, material, caliber, and brand; however, since most common ammunition typically costs roughly anywhere from $0.20 to $0.50 per round, this "bullet tax" amounts to tax of anywhere from 200% to 500% for average consumers. For example, if you currently spend $20 for a fifty-count box of 9mm ammunition, that same box will cost you $70 under the new law.  You will be paying an additional $50 dollars in taxes for that one box of ammunition.  Each round will cost $1.40. 

Otis Rolley is thinking that an increase in the cost of ammunition will discourage crime, but this approach is demonstrating his intense naivete. First of all, Otis Rolley is assuming all criminals buy their ammunition from licensed gun shops who follow the rules and pay taxes. Maybe some criminals do buy their ammunition from legitimate stores, but a lot of their ammunition is probably stolen or purchased on the black market. Placing a tax on legitimate ammunition sales is only going to further encourage black market sales.

Another obvious thing that Otis Rolley overlooked is how insignificant the cost of ammunition is to a person committing a crime. If a criminal fires his gun five times while he is robbing someone for $500, will he really care that he spent an extra $5.00 to get that $500? If anything, the criminal will probably want to commit more robberies to make up for the increase in his overhead.

There is another effect Otis Rolley may have overlooked. If the cost of ammunition goes up 200% to 500%, the legal gun-owners will be discouraged from practicing with their weapons. An avid marksmen could easily shoot a hundred rounds per month. (Some marksmen shoot thousands.) If gun-owners are suddenly faced with such a steep increase in ammunition costs, they will probably spend less time training, their skills will decrease, their accuracy will diminish, and they will be more likely to make mistakes in self-defense situations. These mistakes could be deadly for innocent people.

"This is not a revenue enhancement tool. It's a 'make it difficult for you to buy bullets in the city' tool."

-- Otis Rolley

There is another obvious problem with Rolley's proposal. If ammunition is highly taxed in Baltimore, people will just drive to the city limits to buy it. Since the buyers are making a special trip, they will probably buy extra ammunition to justify the special trip. Baltimore residents will still be buying ammunition, but the business owners in the city will not get any of the sales. Some ammunition sellers may be forced just beyond the city limits just so they can maintain a profit.

Given these obvious and simple realities, it is difficult to believe Otis Rolley is really this naive. Placing a $1.00 tax on each round is not going to do much to prevent crime, and it might even lead to bigger problems. What is really behind Otis Rolley's plan is probably a broader attack on the Second Amendment. When the $1.00 tax does not work, Rolley will want to raise it to $2.00. When that does not work, Rolley will want to raise it again and again. Eventually, ammunition will cost so much that no one will be willing to buy it legally anymore, and all ammunition in Baltimore will either be bought on the black market or outside of city limits.

A man who is as naive and so aggressively oppose to at least one basic civil right as Otis Rolley has no place being in a position of power and authority. A man so inexperienced, unaware, and unqualified would probably be a much better fit for a job like Community Organizer.

Barack Obama Voted Against Debt Limit Increase in 2006

Barack Obama Frowning

Hypocrisy is the most objectionable quality a politician can have, and Barack Obama has proven his hypocrisy by demanding a national debt limit increase in 2011 when he actually voted against a debt limit increase in 2006. In 2006, then Senator Barack Obama voted against H.J.Res.47, a resolution to increase the debt limit from $8.184 trillion to $8.965 trillion.

Just a few years later, Barack Obama is taking the exact opposite position as President. A 180 degree turn of this nature is a huge change. How did Barack Obama manage to completely reverse his views in such a short amount of time?

ATF Operation Castaway Could Be Florida's Fast and Furious Scandal

When Barack Obama promised Sarah Brady he was pursuing gun control "under the radar," maybe he really meant it. The new controversy surrounds the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives' Operation Castaway.

Operation Castaway is the program that led to the arrest of, gun dealer, Hugh Crumpler III. He has been charged for his part in a weapons smuggling operation from Florida to Central America. Rep. Gus Bilirakis (R) is asking, Attorney General, Eric Holder and, ATF Acting Director, Kenneth Melson questions about the full nature of the ATF's Operation Castaway, specifically about the involvement of the ATF's Tampa Field Division.

The ATF is already denying any wrongdoing in the program. The ATF is claiming Operation Castaway was nothing like the botched Fast and Furious program that had ATF personnel allowing and encouraging weapons to flow from gun stores in the United States and into the hands of Mexican gangs. The problem is how do we trust the ATF? We already caught them allowing the smuggling of weapons to Mexico. How can we now be expected to believe the ATF would not also allow weapons to be smuggled into Central America?

How many more programs like this have been going on? Has our federal government had a secret policy of allowing weapons to illegally fall into the hands of dangerous criminals? If so, what is the motivation? The only obvious answer is that ATF is attempting to build a case for more gun laws in the United States, especially with regard to the sale of assault weapons.

Barack Obama for Community Organizer 2012

Bararck Obama for Community Organizer 2012 Campaign Poster

Barack Obama has not been much of a President, but we've all heard he was an awesome community organizer.  Maybe he should give that another try.

Obama Using ATF to Pass Gun Control Under the Radar

Barack Obama Giving the Finger

When Barack Obama told Sarah Brady he was pursuing gun control "under the radar," people began to wonder exactly what he meant. Now, we have a specific example of how a President can abuse his power, overstep his authority, and circumvent the system to enact his own special gun laws.

Under the Obama administration, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, commonly known as the ATF, has unilaterally passed a new rule that requires firearms dealers in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas to report to the ATF sales to an individual of multiple semiautomatic rifles, greater than .22 caliber, with detachable magazines during any five-day period. The stated purpose of this new law is to limit the flow of firearms from the Untied States to Mexico.

This new rule essentially amounts to a new federal gun-control law; however, it was passed without a single vote in Congress. Barack Obama knew he could never get this sort of gun-control law through both houses of Congress, so he just created the law through executive authority and got in through the backdoor.

One of the most problematic features of this new gun law is that is does not apply equally to all states. American citizens who live in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas are now subject to more federal gun restrictions than those citizens in other states. Since the federal government cannot impose federal laws on specific groups of people, this law is unconstitutional.

We may not have to spend a lot of time worrying about the uneven application of this law on the southern border states, however. If the ATF gets away with this law, they are bound to expand it to more states. Eventually, the Obama administration will argue the law was so effective in curbing illegal gun sales in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas that the gun smugglers have started using buyers in states like Colorado, Nevada, Oklahoma, Utah, etc. Then the ATF will expand the law to other states. Eventually, the law will probably apply to Alaska too. Do not be surprised if Barack Obama and the ATF start claiming people are buying guns in Alaska, putting them on boats, and sailing them down the Pacific coast to Mexico.

A ridiculous part of this new rule is the "greater than .22 caliber" clause. Nearly all firearms, except .22s themselves, are greater than .22 caliber. The ATF probably threw in this clause to give the illusion the ATF is concerned only with high-powered rifles. In reality, this law going after just about any rifle caliber. For example, the ATF has always been very aggressive about targeting, AR-15s, the civilian version of the M16. Standard AR-15s fire .223 (similar to 5.56 NATO). Even though the .223 round is only moderately powerful, when compared to most rifle rounds, the ATF probably set the power threshold so low for this law so they could include AR-15s.

Also note that the ATF is specifically mentioning "detachable magazines" and "semiautomatic" rifles in the rule. This is just code for "assault weapons." The ATF simply does not like people have assault weapons, and those are the first weapons they would abolish if given the chance. That is what they are pursuing with this rule. This rule is what will set the stage for eventually placing stricter controls on the types of guns the ATF does not like.

The most egregious element to all of this ATF reporting business is the hypocrisy. The Obama administration is claiming that too many firearms are ending up in Mexico, but the ATF's "Fast and Furious" program was deliberately allowing actual working firearms to be transferred to Mexican gangs. Obama and the ATF are out panicking everyone about how many US weapons are ending up in the hands of gangs in Mexico when our government was just caught intentionally allowing--and even encouraging--those weapons to flow into Mexico as part of a organized effort. You just can't make this stuff up.

Obama Stimulus Cost $278,000 per Job

Barack Obama - My Stimulus Package Poster
Image: Pundit Kitchen

Barack Obama's stimulus was a spectacular failure. Click the link below to read the full article from Jeffrey H. Anderson at The Weekly Standard.

"Obama’s Economists: ‘Stimulus’ Has Cost $278,000 per Job"