You have to wonder just how many times Obama is going to announce that, thanks entirely to Republicans in Congress, this nation is on the verge of going over the cliff or ending up in a ditch. I also wonder how many people still give a darn if Operation Head Start simply disappears or how it is that cops and firefighters, who all collect a city or county paycheck, will suddenly be unemployed if the federal government has to cut two cents from every dollar it currently squanders.

And why is it that instead of ever coming up with a plan to avoid emergency measures, Obama always pretends that he has no choice in such matters but to fire food inspectors and air traffic control agents, people who actually perform vital services, but never mentions his own battalion of butt-kissing aides and Mrs. Obama’s ladies-in-waiting?

Apparently Chuck Hagel will be the next Secretary of Defense. Not only can he count on all 55 Senate Democrats voting for him, but a large number of Republicans. In spite of the fact that he is an anti-Semite and the best friend Iran has in America, the feeling, as expressed by Sen. Saxby Chambliss, is that the president should be allowed to pick his own cabinet members. Why any Republican senator should feel that way is a mystery to me. Not only is Hagel not the best man for the job, he may very well be the worst.

But I also could never figure out why the Republicans allowed Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who had been the chief counsel of the ACLU and an outspoken feminist, to sail through her confirmation hearings in 1993 even though she refused to answer questions from those who wondered how she planned to make the transition from left-wing advocate to being a justice on the Supreme Court. And over the past 20 years, we’ve all come to realize that she never had the slightest intention of transitioning. The final vote, by the way, was 96-3.

And yet it had only been a scant six years earlier, in 1987, that the Democrats prevented Ronald Reagan from appointing Robert Bork to the Supreme Court.

And, again, in 2004, the Democrats prevented George W. Bush from appointing either Charles Pickering and, later, Michael B. Wallace, to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, often a stepping stone to the Supreme Court.

Clearly, it’s Democrats who know how to play hardball. Republicans don’t even know how to put on their jockstraps.

I am guessing that the Democrats will get the massive immigration reform bill passed just the way they want it. That means, as happened with Reagan, who signed the first amnesty bill, they will promise to build an enormous fence with barbed wire and electricity running through it, and then renege once they have all the illegals registered as Democrats. And by “all,” I am not referring to the 11 million they keep yakking about. That is the exact same number that was being tossed around over a decade ago. So unless Mexicans stopped sneaking in since then, stopped having babies or have taken Romney’s suggestion to heart and started self-deporting, I think it is safe to assume the number is much closer to 20 million.

Wouldn’t it make for a nice change if the next time Obama started in about needing higher taxes in order to finance work on our infrastructure, he quit yakking about bridges, roads and those damn trains that nobody wants, and instead started making plans to build that fence?

I always found it odd that Reagan, who made the line “Trust but verify” so famous when talking about the Soviet Union, was so easily flimflammed by the Democrats.

I am quickly losing patience with those conservative pundits who don’t believe that Obama is out to destroy our economy in order to re-create it in the image of the failed socialistic economies of Europe. But, some of these pundits argue, even he can see that those countries are all on life support. Of course he can. But what they fail to recognize is the size of the man’s ego. None of those countries, after all, has had his masterful hand at the helm.

What further confounds me is that, in spite of a corrupt media that never tires of singing Obama’s praises, you would think that people would recognize in their own lives and those of their friends and relatives what a disaster he has been. And what a hypocrite! He rails against the rich and privileged – you know those millionaires and billionaires with their private jets – as if he were a member of the proletariat. But not only is he worth several million dollars, and will be worth hundreds of millions once he’s out of office and able to cash in on books to which he’ll lend his name and speeches for which he’ll be paid a king’s ransom, but look at who he hangs out with. If he’s not breaking bread with the likes of Paul McCartney, Tom Hanks, George Clooney and Sarah Jessica Parker, he’s giving campaign speeches at gatherings where tickets go for $35,000 apiece or playing golf with Tiger Woods or footsies with Warren Buffet and Jeffrey Immelt.

The only poor people he ever even lays eyes on are the Marines who have to salute him when he prances off Air Force One and those silly buggers who provide a background curtain for him every time he delivers a speech.

Finally, have you ever noticed how many left-wingers, especially those who accuse conservatives of being fascists, relish the company of real life dictators? For openers, there’s Oliver Stone and Michael Moore, who can’t get enough of guys like Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez. Steven Spielberg said that the seven hours he spent with Castro were the highlight of his life. Sean Penn, who’s not only enamored of Castro and Chavez, but also had very warm feelings for Saddam Hussein.

Woody Allen wished that Obama didn’t have to answer to Congress or the Supreme Court, and Harry Belafonte wants Obama to toss his Republican critics in jail. Even that’s not enough for Bill Maher, Will Ferrell and Chris Matthews, who wanted George Bush dead and would like to see the rest of us in the terminal ward.

But that’s nothing new. George Bernard Shaw, an avowed socialist, had nice things to say about Hitler and Mussolini. Charlie Chaplin, Lillian Hellman, Paul Robeson, and half the self-labeled intellectuals in Hollywood and New York, thought that Joseph Stalin was the cat’s pajamas.

Although, nobody seems certain whether it was Marx, Lenin or Stalin, who first dubbed those radical zealots who blindly promoted communism as “useful idiots,” the fact is he was only half right.

Author’s Note: I have been approached to host an internet radio talk show, but I need sponsors. The good news is that you’re responding and I now only need a couple more to step up. So, if you own a company, sell a product or provide a service – or perhaps know someone who does – please contact me at [email protected], and I will be happy to answer any and all questions.