$172,000/Yr is a Modest Salary?

“We’ve been on this ride together since I won my Senate primary in 2004,” Mr. Obama said. “He’s had a six-year stretch now where basically he’s been going 24/7 with relatively modest pay. I think it’s natural for someone like Robert to want to step back for a second to reflect, retool and that, as a consequence, brings about both challenges and opportunities for the White House.”

President Obama to The New York Times on press secetary Roberts Gibbs leaving his post at White House.

I am simply stunned by how obtuse this president is.  While I am sure that there was a time that Gibbs did make a modest salary, like when he was working for the campaign for senate.  Once those days ended, Gibbs has made a decent living (that I paid for, mind you).  Staffers in the U.S. Senate have a pretty good pay scale once you go above the lower level positions.  Many of which also pay six figures.  On top of which you have very good benefits package for yourself and your family.  Roberts Gibbs is now making a salary of $172,000/Yr there is nothing modest about that.  Especailly when you consider how many people in this country live on far less. 

Gibbs slaved away with President Obama for the past 6 years on his modest salary, and now has put himself in the position to make about $30-50K per speech.  Again, a haul that gives him more money in a day that some earn in year.  Gibbs also is not really leaving the Obama circle, he will be repositioning himself to gear up for the upcoming re-election campaign, which will give him another "modest" salary. 

Has President Obama failed to grasp the fact that we still have 10% unemployment and many many more that are underemployed and not counted in that unemployment level because they have given up?  This is a party that is constantly attacking the "rich", saying that they don't do their fare share as far as taxes are concerned.  Yet, they seem to have no problem being the people that make that money and take every possible tax write off that they can find.  All the while lecuturing people on how they should be paying more of their hard earned salaries to the government treasury that is chock filled with ineffiencies and fraud.  I guess we need to send more money to the treasury so we can pay the "modest" salaries of people like Baghad Bob Gibbs. 

Baghdad Bob Gibbs is at it Again

Obama always said that additional troops will help.  Really? 



Campaign aide Wendy Morigi said Obama is "not softening his criticism of the surge. We regularly update the Web site to reflect changes in current events."   A comment on a question of why Obama removed the language of his website regarding the surge.  At the time of this article, the surge was clearly working and the violence was going down. 

"The surge is not working," Sen. Barack Obama

The night that President Bush announced his plan to add additional troops. 



Clearly, President Obama did not "always" say that the additional troops would help.  He was wrong.  Admit it and move on. 

Can We Be Grownups? Gibbs Mock Of Private Citizen Palin

As we all know by now, Sarah Palin wrote some notes on her hand during her speech at the Tea Party Convention on Saturday. Apparently, the left has found this to be a big deal. I guess it continues the narrative that she is stupid. I am not sure how one makes that leap, but ok. Maybe she just didn't have a piece of paper handy.




Bloggers from both sides of the aisle pick things that may not be really relevant to how our government is run. For example a lot has been made about Michelle Obama's work on childhood obesity. I personally find this to be a good cause.


Obesity is a real problem in our society and needs to be dealt with. Teaching children healthy eating habits is something that they will carry with them for the balance of their lives. It will allow them to be healthier as they grow into adults. For purposes of disclosure here, I have battled with an eating disorder for decades. I spent the majority of my life fighting battles with food; in my case, the lack of it. So for me, I think she is doing the right thing by giving attention to teaching kids to eat right. I want to pull my hair out when I see kids that are still in strollers drinking soda and eating candy bars. But, many on the right have been critical of her choice to highlight this issue. 


Sarah Palin has more than her fair share of criticism; some of which has come from me. I don't like some of her recent decisions, stumping for Rand Paul and John McCain as two examples. I happen to have my own view points on her making a run for the presidency that many conservatives don't agree with. I don't want her to get the nomination. I don't think that she can win for one. Another reason that I am becoming more leery of her is that it seems to me that she is getting the same type of blind loyalty and rock star status that President Obama receives (or at least did receive). It isn't healthy for any politician in America to have that type of following. To me, that isn't what America is about. As citizens of this country we are free to criticize and protest. It is our responsibility as citizens to question, not to follow blindly. That being said, I am a blogger. My words aren't showing up in living rooms across the world.


Andrea Mitchell, a "reporter" for NBC was on the morning show at MSNBC and was mocking Palin with notes written on her hand. Had Olbermann or Chris Matthews done this it would be a different thing. They are commentators, they are paid to give opinion and obviously mock. Andrea Mitchell is "journalist"; one that I had felt had a reputation of being a hard worker. She is personally liberal; fine. She is an American and has a right to her opinion. But her job is to give facts; she is not paid to give opinion or to mock.


So today, I guess Bagdad Bob Gibbs wanted to get in on the joke and showed up in the press briefing room today with his pre-snow storm grocery list written on his hand. This is even worse than what Andrea Mitchell did. He is the public face of The President of The United States. His briefings are shown all over the world. He is paid tax payer funds to perform a job that gives information to American public in regards to what the administration is up to, not to mock private citizens. This should be considered below the standards of the white house. Oh, by the way, many of us are looking for that Hope and Change too.

KSM Trial - Did Robert Gibbs Damage the Prosecution's Case?

“He will be brought to justice, and he will likely be executed for the heinous crimes he has committed,” Gibbs said on CNN's "State of the Union." “That you can be sure of.”






The mantra that is being used by the administration for the rationale of trying KSM in open court is to show the world what the American justice system is all about. Well, is it just me, or did Baghdad Bob Gibbs just get KSM a mistrial? Where was the word alleged? This is not the only statement from the administration that is similar to this. Even the President himself has seemed to indicate the KSM will be found guilty. While I can’t imagine any jury in this country not finding him guilty, it is still something that officials can’t say out loud like this. Any decent defense attorney will file a motion for dismissal based on these statements.


The administration has even gone as far as to say that if for some reason that there is not a guilty verdict KSM will not be allowed to go free. We have top administration officials making statements of his guilt, saying that he will never allowed to be freed regardless of what the verdict is, and it seems that the administration has already decided that the death penalty will be jury’s verdict. Why are we having a trial then? Could it be to satisfy the far left’s thirst to punish the Bush administration?


The American justice system is about proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and a presumption of innocence. The President is a former constitutional law professor. You don’t get to have it both ways here. You either give KSM all the constitutional rights to a fair trial or you don’t. The administration needs to make up its mind what it is going to be. They are either going to follow the law and allow the process to take place fairly, or they are going to try and score points with American public by making it seem that holding the trials on US soil is a good idea. These type of statements go a long way to make it look like the latter.