Disappoint mints banned from University of Tennessee, Economy tanking, High unemployment rates, Hopium running dangerously low
From John Kass and the Chicago Tribune August 5, 2011.
“So what do you give a beleaguered president who just ate a mess of birthday barbecue with his friends from Chicago?
Disappoint-mints.
Yes, Disappoint-mints, the breath mints with President Barack Obama’s likeness on the cover.
After you chow down on some baby backs and corn and birthday burgers while roughly 9 percent of the nation is out of work and thinking about dog food recipes, there’s only thing that’ll freshen your barbecue breath.
Mints in a box with Obama’s face and the slogan:
“This is Change? Disappoint-mints.”
With the economy tanking and overwhelmingly high unemployment rates, and the nation’s supply of Hopium running dangerously low, who wouldn’t want something sweet and tasty?
Like a Disappoint-mint.
They were on sale at the University of Tennessee bookstore for only $2.99 when an angry Democratic state legislator, Joe Armstrong, declared the mints were offensive.
He insisted that those offensive mints be removed from the shelves.
You’d think a Democrat would support a diversity of mints and champion equal opportunity of flavors, but with Obama in political trouble, tolerance becomes a casualty.
Armstrong got angry. The meek University of Tennessee caved. And those insensitive Obama Disappoint-mints were yanked off the shelves.
“… When you operate on state and federal dollars, you ought to be sensitive to those type of politically specific products,” the Knoxville News Sentinel quoted Armstrong as saying. “If it was a private entity or corporation or store, (that’s different), but this is a state university. We certainly don’t want in any way to put the university in a bad light by having those political (products), particularly aimed at defaming the president.”
Armstrong, who will be known henceforth as Mr. Free Speech, told the newspaper that pulling the mints off the shelves did not violate the First Amendment, because the mints were not “educational material.”
In other words, Armstrong is a complete moron and is just making up random stuff in the name of Obama.
“With a book or something of that nature, then fine, but (the mints are) sort of a discretionary product they have,” Armstrong told the News Sentinel. “It wasn’t viewpoint-neutral. Very specifically insulting to the president.”
We called Glenn Reynolds, professor of law at the University of Tennessee and boss of the widely read blog Instapundit.
“My first response is that there’s no candy exception in the First Amendment,” said Reynolds.
“… But it’s far more suppressive when a legislator travels down there in person and demands that they be taken off the shelf,” he said.
Reynolds said that with the election coming up, people will have to learn to be more thick-skinned.
That’s the noble ideal. But it seems to me that as elections near, skins tend to stretch thinner and thinner.”
“Obama insists that government can lift the country out of recession, but all the meddling has made it worse, and Thursday’s drop of more than 500 points in the Dow Jones Industrial Average highlights the futility.
So many Americans are nervous. And political hacks like Joe Armstrong are merely a symptom.
But all that can change.
All we’ve got to do is ban all the Disappoint-mints.”
Read more:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/ct-met-kass-0805-20110805,0,7782665,full.column





Debt Deal Is Bad News, Glenn Beck Commentary, Moodys warning, Waste and fraud in Federal government
Debt Deal Is Bad News, Glenn Beck Commentary, Moodys warning, Waste and fraud in Federal government
From Glenn Beck and The Blaze August 1, 2011.
“Glenn Beck Commentary: Why the Debt Deal Is Bad News”
“Don’t be fooled. We’ve just been betrayed by Washington.
A deal on the debt ceiling is near and Washington still hasn’t gotten serious about the fundamentals. It hasn’t gotten serious about default. It certainly hasn’t gotten serious about the future. When Harry Reid hails a “bipartisan compromise” you know we’re doomed.
Republicans and Democrats have just negotiated away the future of our children behind closed doors. The big compromise on Capitol Hill features elaborate triggers, tranches, Hornswogglers, Snozzwangers, Super Duper Commissions that will make the Snozzberries taste like Snozeberries, and a whole bunch of other convoluted gibberish that will, no doubt, come with loopholes and create entire new bureaucracies. What it doesn’t do is fix the problem.
The fact is Moody’s has already warned us that no one has put a plan on the table that comes close to solving our long-term problem. Moody’s will downgrade us. This could happen tomorrow, in six months or maybe a year from now, but at some point in the near future it’s going to happen. And it’s going to hurt. So we must be prepared.
Imagine your credit card’s interest rates constantly rising. Imagine high inflation eating away at your savings accounts, retirement funds and salary — if you’re lucky enough to have one these days. Imagine the interest rate on your mortgage rising and compounding until there was no hope of escaping debt. Imagine that fewer and fewer people are willing to lend you any money as your credit rating takes a dive.
Now imagine we’re talking about 15, 25, 100 trillion dollars and your Medicare, Social Security and Treasury bonds.
Those tanks and missiles Republicans say we need? No more. Those food stamps and green-energy boondoggles Democrats say we can’t live without? Forget it. We won’t be able to afford them. It won’t matter how many prime time speeches the president gives or how dangerous the world gets. The unsustainable cost of irresponsible governance mean everyone loses.
And by everyone, I mean the whole world.
Remember the saying: as Greece goes so goes the world? The United States economy constitutes around 25 percent of the world’s GDP. What happens to global economy when we default? Everyone will feel it. After all, who’s going to send billions in weapons to Egypt’s military regime to help it quell the “democratic” Arab street when we can’t even pay the janitors at the IRS office space?
So what is the point of all the drama in Washington? As best as I can tell most politicians are scared stiff that they might have to have a substantive debate about the debt ceiling during the election season. Other than that, we’re back where we started.
For one, any promise of future cuts is as about as rock solid as a politician’s word. Experience has taught us every year some “unprecedented” emergency will require us to spend hundreds of billions, if not trillions, we don’t have to “fix.” Mark my words, the war (I’m sorry … “kinetic military action”) that no one even understands in Libya will expand and then all the promises forgotten.”
“You cannot spend more than you earn. You cannot run up the largest credit card bill in human history. You want more revenue? Stop chasing income earners overseas by threatening them with higher taxes, stop inflating their energy costs and stop punishing them with never-ending regulations. Mr President, put down your socialist mop! Stop with the Cloward and Piven floor wax.
And then balance the budget, cut back the spending and reform entitlements.”
Read more:
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/glenn-beck-commentary-why-the-debt-deal-is-bad-news/
105 Comments
Posted in Barack Obama, Congress, Democrats, Glenn Beck, Government, Obama, Obama lies, Obama Nation, Obama records, republicans, US House of Representatives, US Senate, Washington DC, white house
Tagged Debt Deal Is Bad News, Glenn Beck Commentary, Moodys warning, Waste and fraud in Federal government