Crimes, Lowlights, and Incompetence of the Obama Administration (Part II)

• Obama supported the opposition movement in Egypt which enabled the radical Muslim Brotherhood (still believe in Sharia Law) to ascend to power. Within a year of the Brotherhood’s power grab, they were ousted by the military. Obama has yet to rescind his support for the Muslim Brotherhood. Egypt, once a reliable U.S. ally, now remains unstable.
• Obama moves unilaterally on highly controversial subjects that should garner bipartisan support in Congress including immigration reform, education reform (Race to the Top which is worse than No Child Left Behind – protects bad teachers, eliminates competition, and relies on standardized testing) , gun control, and EPA standards.
• The DOJ allows the ATF to allow guns to walk to Mexico in an attempt to capture drug lords. This program was known as Fast and Furious. Unfortunately, the ATF lost track of the guns and subsequently these guns have turned up at dozens of crime scenes including the death of a U.S. Border Agent. Despite this, and the death of hundreds of innocent Mexicans, the DOJ and administration hide behind executive privilege.
• Obama belittles the Bush administration for violating the civil liberties of terrorists. Yet, the Obama administration policy is to kill, even unarmed, terrorists without any opportunity of due process. If that is not bad enough, Obama has expanded the Bush administration’s drone program which by some estimates kills 6 innocent civilians per terrorist death.
• The administration lies and deceives the American Public about the Benghazi embassy attacks. If this is not bad enough, the administration failed to heed to security warnings in the area and then failed to send any military help. Essentially, the administration left the victims behind to die.
• The Boston Bombings could have prevented because intelligence agencies failed to heed the advice from Russia intelligence agencies about the Tsarneav brothers.
• The IRS targeted conservative groups and failed to grant them charitable status. The IRS has been chartered to run ObamaCare.
• The EPA targeted conservative groups by illegally providing their personal information to environmental groups.
• The DOJ targeted conservative journalists supposedly to find national security leaks within the administration. Interestingly, no one at the New York Times was targeted even though the newspaper published several leaks about the bin Laden killing and the Stuxnet computer virus to slow the Iran nuclear program.
• Obama expanded the Bush NSA metadata surveillance spying program on Americans. What’s worse, Obama’s ties to Google have enabled the administration to identify consumer personal information for election purposes.
• Obama claimed the sequestration would lead to a government shutdown – it did not happen.
• Obama botched race relations by inciting the emotions of the American public by taking sides on the Trayvon Martin and Cambridge police incidents.
• Obama, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for doing nothing, wanted to move unilaterally to bomb Syria because they used chemical weapons. Obama finally brokers a deal with Russia and the Syria regime – Yes, U.S. foreign policy runs through Russia and terrorists.
• The State Department is marred with sex scandals and crimes.
• The media protects the administration. To date, no one has been held accountable for Benghazi, and no one in the administration has even been fired let alone sent to prison for any of their scandals. In fact, several people involved in the scandals have been promoted for their actions.
• The administration routinely uses the John Banner defense to avoid complicity with scandals and incompetence. Everyone within the administration, State Department, and DOJ claims “to know nothing”, make excuses, and blame their predecessor for all their shortcomings.

I probably missed more lies, criminal activity, and incompetence of the administration, but who is keeping count.

Crimes, Lowlights, and Incompetence of the Obama Administration (Part I)

• Obama was going to close to Guantanamo Bay, it is still open.
• Obama continued Bush policies to bail out Wall Street. However, nothing has been done to fix “too big to fail”.
• Obama bails out auto companies to prevent bankruptcy. However, the companies still go into bankruptcy where they are restructured to survive. Yes, it was bankruptcy, not the bailouts that saved the auto companies.
• Air Force 1 does a photo op over New York City which brings back fears of another 9/11 attack.
• Obama empowers over 40 Czars who have no congressional oversight and many oversee budgets.
• Obama’s 900 billion dollar stimulus passes congress and nearly 5 years later Unemployment is over 7%, the underemployed rate has gone up 10% and the civilian workforce has declined by 6 million people. Still, the Obama administration blames Bush for America’s economic woes.
• The poverty rate in the United States is at its highest levels in history. In fact, the discrepancy between the rich and poor is at its highest levels.
• Disability rates are the highest in American history and growing at an uncontrollable rate. In fact, disability is the fastest growing occupation in the United States.
• Welfare, in particular food stamps, has grown to record levels at an uncontrollable rate.
• Lobbying has increased at a 10% rate per year under Obama to its highest levels (remember, the economy has been fairly flat over Obama’s 5 years).
• Obama declares victory in Iraq, but fails to give Bush any credit even though Obama voted against the surge which changed the outcome of the war.
• Obama’s “green plan” has led to the administration picking winners and losers in industry (winners are generally those companies which donate to his campaign). This program squandered billions of dollars in companies like Solyndra. The Obama green plan failed because it did not invest in innovation and new technology, but instead in old and outdated technologies.
• Obama eliminates the DC voucher program for underprivileged children, but he sends his kids to DC private schools.
• U.S. deficit spending and debt levels reach unprecedented highs – 100% of GDP.
• ObamaCare passed congress in a partisan vote that was crammed down the throats of Americans. Today, implementation of the law is not only far behind, but no one including Democrats like the law. Union bosses who urged Congress to push through the legislation as fast as possible are now irate once they learned what is in the law. Now they are working to broker a sweetheart deal, while the rest of Americans are stuck with the law as is. Companies are pushing employees to part time and dropping coverage all together. Premiums in most states are skyrocketing. And the law treats everyone differently depending on your affiliation, age, state of residence, union ties, etc.
• Obama and the DOJ have given enemy combatants civilian rights.
• The administration has failed to label The Fort Hood massacre as a terrorist attack.
• Obama leads from behind on the BP Oil Spill. Obama lets environmental groups dictate how the administration attacks the leak – eliminating many options.
• Iran and North Korea continue to pursue long range missiles and nuclear aspirations.
• Obama has been historic in terms of spending money on lavish parties, campaigning, fund raising, and playing basketball and golf.
• Obama escalated the war in Afghanistan leading to many more American troops’ deaths and casualties, but he is withdrawing in defeat. What’ worse he is negotiating with the Taliban terrorists.
• Many cities across the United States have filed for bankruptcy; including Detroit (remember the auto bailout?).
• On a high note, Obama killed Osama Bin Laden. But he failed to recognize the efforts of the Bush administration and enhanced interrogation techniques that led to this historic triumph.
• Obama moved unilaterally to go to war in Libya to aid the opposition force to overthrow Qaddafi. The result: Libya remains an unstable and weapons supplied by the U.S. to remove Qaddafi have already been used by terrorists to attack Western sites including the Benghazi attack on the U.S. embassy.

Practice What You Preach!

For the most part I do not care what a person believes. My problem is that most people do not practice what they believe. We are a nation of hypocrites and a nation of people who are completely unaware of their actions. I believe well over 90% of people do not practice what they preach. Instead, they insist that their neighbors and corporations comply with their beliefs.

I try to practice what I preach in life. Sure, like most people, I find myself at times contradicting myself and being a hypocrite. However, I am trying to be self-aware to correct these shortcomings.

For instance, I do not believe in welfare. Today, over 80% of the people alive will take more federal subsidies than they will put into the system. A big reason for this is due to the fact people are living longer. I believe people who take more out of the system then they put in are a burden on society. I will not be one of these people. Republicans are the biggest hypocrites when it comes to this. They criticize welfare but take advantage of government subsidies such as “cash for clunkers”. They take unemployment and social security because they paid into the system. That may be true, but these people will be up in arms if the government changed the rules on them – lowered wages for these programs, reduced time to be on these programs and or raised the age requirement.

I qualify for disability and paid into that system, but I do not partake. I qualify for unemployment, but will never accept a single unemployment check. I qualified for a PELL grant in college, but I paid that money back with interest. I live in constant pain but I do not feel the government should subsidize funding to find a cure for my ailment. It is a certainty that anyone else with my disorder would take what the government would give them.

Nobody is a bigger hypocrite than liberals. They preach renewable energies so long as they are not in their back yard. They want to place carbon taxes on corporations but they will not place the same standards on their lives. In fact, they preach higher taxes on others, but not on themselves.

Our government passes laws that do not apply to them. While most Americans are taxed for social security, most government workers do not partake in the system. Instead, they are guaranteed some high priced pensions that are paid for by taxpayers. Congress voted to exclude themselves from having to partake in ObamaCare. These are just a few examples.

People are narcissistic and hence, greedy by nature. Unfortunately, this trend is getting worse in younger adults. They are the generation of entitlement and owed money just for living and doing nothing practical for society. They believe in getting more for less work. They are for the most part carbon emitting oxygen thieves. This attitude will doom America.

Poll: How Much Have Your Insurance Premiums Changed this Year?

Remember, the above formula can change if, for example, your deductible and or copay has changed. If your deductible has changed then the formula is: (This years premium plus or minus the deductible change minus last years premium) divided by last years premium. Remember to keep the units in the equation the same for each variable (i.e. months or years).

Flaws in Freakonomics

I watched the film on Freakonomics and for the most part I found it interesting, but was highly disappointed. The bit on Sumo wrestling corruption could have been determined with eyeball statistics. Even more troubling was the section on why crime has been decreasing over time. It was determined that the Roe v Wade decision to make abortion legal in all 50 states helped to reduce crime over time by aborting “unwanted” babies. In fact, they found abortions were the leading reason for massive crime drops across the country (50% of the reason). The authors state they are not political but stating facts. Let’s say their facts are true; then maybe they can explain the following for me:

What constitutes an “unwanted” baby? There are no official statistics on “unwanted” babies, nor is there an official definition. Is an “unwanted” pregnancy the same as an unintended pregnancy? If that is true, then that also does not make much sense. The number of children living with single moms has been going up dramatically over time and despite this epidemic the crime rate has gone down. What does this say? The number of unintended pregnancies (stats show unintended pregnancies are more likely to happen with single moms) must be going up, but crime is still going down.

Since most crime, especially violent crime, presides in our inner cities, then why has the poverty rate remained constant over time. Most cities have seen a decrease in crime, but at the same time the percentage of people living in poverty has remained the same. If there was a crackdown on “unwanted” babies then why hasn’t there been a crackdown on the poverty rate?

The section on educational incentives almost made me sick to my stomach. They researched the effect of paying kids a “stipend” would have their grades. What they found is that F students remained F students and 5% of D students moved to C students. What’s even more troubling is that C’s were acceptable grades to earn the stipend. More research would have to be done to conclude if C students were more likely to be successful than D students. Really, this is how far we have stooped – paying kids to go to school?

The real failure of Freakonomics is that it neglects decades of data in their study on crime and education. For instance, it only evaluates data from the all- time highs in crime during the 70s to the present and only the current situation with education. They fail to determine what caused crime to spike so high and what caused the educational system to get broken in the first place. This is a cardinal sin for economist’s to pick and choose which data they want to evaluate. For example, the real question for education is to determine what variables have caused the educational / parental system to collapse and fix that instead of bribing kids to get C’s (which will probably do them no good).

BFS and Wrestling

Below is a link to a letter I wrote to Intermat regarding creating wrestling opportunities for Paralympics and military veterans with PTSD or other injuries.  My post is at the bottom of the page under Comment of the Week – I am Patrick B. My point is that wrestling is therapeutic for people with just about any disorder. Intermat is one of the leading wrestling websites reporting on youth, high school, college, and international wrestling.

http://intermatwrestle.com/articles/11856

 

Anyone interested in having their child attend a wrestling camp offered by Zach Flake can refer to the below link or email me. If Zach can help me and make me a better wrestler – He can help anyone (Hopefully the camp is up and running next year). Zach is also a licensed white water river guide and can take wrestlers and their families down the Arkansas River. Nothing like training at 8000 feet to make athletes better conditioned.

The Infection that is Liberalism

Liberalism is like a disease manifesting itself into our small rural Colorado community. Although our town and county still leans conservative, the many liberals retiring from Denver and Boulder into our community are making a huge impact.

In the six years since I have lived here our sales tax and property taxes have increased several times during rough economic conditions. One reason our sales tax was increased was to improve our roads. Since this time there has been little improvement in our roads. In fact, in the winter the town refuses to plow the roads and they are skating rink. To improve roads and save money one would think snow removal would be a key ingredient to maintaining road conditions. Since the town refuses to plow them the constant freezing and thawing of the ice creates cracks and pot holes that usually go years before they are fixed. This makes no sense that taxpayers are paying more money for improved roads, but snow removal is not part of that plan. Ironically, residents can be fined if they do not shovel their walks and driveways! This is liberalism at its best – it is where the government does nothing and places the burden on the taxpayers. A good example of this is the IRS. If I call the IRS for tax help and they give me the wrong advice I am still liable for fines and imprisonment – that is liberalism.

In the past two decades the population in our county has increased 50% but the number of county and city vehicles has gone up by over 1000%. There are 9 police cars instead of one, but that does not mean the streets are patrolled any more frequently. I see a police car patrol our streets maybe once every couple of weeks.

The town pays to put one tree in new residential yards and talk about a bureaucratic process. The bylaws for this are 30 pages long and it took 4 city workers came to our house to place a stake in the yard where the tree would go. It took 8 city employees to plant the tree along with one tractor and 2 other city vehicles.

This is the result of liberalism. Many businesses refuse to come to our town because the city rules, regulations, and mandates are just too demanding and business unfriendly. For instances, new businesses are required to have a paved parking lot even though the current address and neighboring businesses have a gravel parking lot. New businesses have to have a certain number of trees per square foot even if neighboring businesses are grandfathered and do not have to comply with new laws. These are huge expenses for a new business and for some reason our town wants to punish and nickel and dime any new businesses to death. This is what happens when liberalism infects your town – more taxes, fewer results, more government employees, and more rules, regulations and mandates.

Changing the Rules to Win Elections

As a self-absorbed and narcissistic youth, I made up games and changed the rules so I could beat my younger brother. What Obama and Democrats are doing today is no different. They can care less what the outcome of ObamaCare is on the general public in terms of healthcare or taxes; the only thing they care about is winning elections. For this reason, Obama and Democrats are continually making up and changing the rules of laws, mandates, and regulations.

A recent story, and of course it was no surprise, revealed the White House delayed the passage of many regulations, in particular environmental regulations, until after the 2012 election cycle. Why? Because these type of regulations are not popular with the general public and would cost them votes.

Why did the Obama administration and State Department lie about the Benghazi attack? Because the timing of a terrorist attack so close to a Presidential election would cost them votes – so they lied, especially since the administration and state department were negligent because they ignored security risks. It did not matter if the truth came out so long as the truth was not revealed before Election Day. And, of course, the liberal media would not pursue such a story if would damage Obama’s chances of being reelected.

Of course it was no surprise that other stories such as DOJ, EPA, and IRS targeting of conservative individuals, companies, and groups were not revealed until after the 2012 election even though the illegal activity was going since Obama entered office.

Nothing illustrates the way Obama and Democrats have tried to manipulate a law than ObamaCare. For some reason, Obama feels he has the Constitutional right to a line item veto for this law. In other words, Obama thinks he can pick and or change provisions in the legislation without any congressional consent. Thus far, Obama has made the following changes to the law to impact election results:

• Human Health and Services provided many states, individuals, and certain groups a waiver to delay the start of certain tax provisions of the law until after the 2012 election.

• Obama has delayed the Corporate Mandate until after the 2014 midterm elections.

• Obama has waived the individual mandate on persons who lost their coverage because ObamaCare cancelled their plan until after the 2014 midterm elections.

• Obama has waived the mandate to cancel health insurance plans that do not meet law requirements until after the 2014 midterm elections.

Nothing this administration does surprises me anymore. They will lie, change rules, defy the constitution, and do whatever is necessary to win elections.

Where is the Liberal Outrage over Obama Actions?

Why is it acceptable to spend billions to perform a metadata analysis on every phone call and email made by American citizens and even use drones to spy on Americans (to prevent terrorist attacks), but we do not have enough money to secure our borders to make sure terrorists and drug lords do not enter our country?

Why is it acceptable to analyze and collect data on every phone call and email made by American citizens, but it is not acceptable for individuals to show proof of citizenship to identify illegal aliens?

Why is it acceptable to analyze and collect data on every phone call and email made by American citizens, but it is not acceptable to require a photo ID to vote to prevent fraud?

Why is acceptable to analyze and collect data on every phone call and email made by American citizens, but it is not acceptable to require all legal citizens carry a national ID card?

Why is it acceptable for the federal government (IRS, EPA, and DOJ) to target conservative groups, but it is not acceptable to use profiling or targeting techniques to identify illegal aliens or terrorists?

Why is it acceptable for terrorists to be tried in civilian courts, but U.S. military personnel be tried in a military tribunal?

Why is it acceptable to kill unarmed terrorists including Americans but it is unacceptable to use enhanced interrogation techniques on terrorists to obtain intelligence?

Why is it acceptable to increase U.S. drone activity around the globe except to secure our borders?

Why is it acceptable for the government to let the lose track of the same types of guns in the Fast and Furious program that they want to outlaw?

Why is acceptable for a Bush administration person to go to jail for outing a CIA agent yet no one from the Obama administration has been jailed for the Fast and Furious fiasco (led to the death of thousands including a U.S. border agent), lying about the Benghazi terror attack (still no one has been captured), targeting the media by the DOJ, and targeting conservatives by the IRS and EPA?

Why is it unacceptable for Bush to go War with congressional support in Iraq (a war that ousted a genocidal dictator and installed a democratic government) but it is acceptable to for Obama to escalate a war in Afghanistan and go to war in Libya unilaterally?

Why is it acceptable for our President to negotiate with terrorists who are killing Americans (Taliban in Afghanistan)?

Why is it okay for Obama to exponentially escalate the death of innocent civilians using drone strikes when the Left called for Bush to be tried for war crimes using the same but reduced strategy?

Why is it acceptable for Senator Obama to accuse Bush of invasion of privacy and first amendment civil liberty violations for using NSA metadata analysis, but it is okay for President Obama to not only use the same program, but to escalate the program to include not only phone calls, but emails?

Why is acceptable for the “Affordable” Care Act to be “Unaffordable” for the middle class and poor (healthcare premiums are skyrocketing)?

Why is it acceptable that Guantanamo Bay is still open?

Why is it acceptable for the Kathleen Sebilius (Head of the HHS) to beg (like a beggar on a city street corner) insurance companies for donations to implement ObamaCare?

Why is it acceptable for the head of the IRS department who targeted conservative groups be put in charge of the IRS group in charge of enforcing ObamaCare?

Why is it acceptable for the IRS who has admittedly provided American citizens “poor customer service” and illegally targeted groups, organizations, and individuals; squandered 50 million dollars on conferences in 2012; and squandered 70 million in bonuses in 2013 be trusted to enforce ObamaCare?

Why is it acceptable for unemployment and underemployment to remain at high levels despite pouring trillions into the economy?

Why is it acceptable for Obama to run up record deficits, but these same actions by Bush drew the ire of the Left?

Obama Bests Bush Over Civil Liberties Violations

• Obama escalates the war in Afghanistan; goes to war unilaterally in Libya (and we see how that worked out – the area is unstable and weapons used to oust Qaddafi were used to attack our embassy and western interests in the area); and exponentially increases drone strikes around the globe leading to massive collateral damage including civilian lives.

• Obama fails to close Guantanamo Bay. And although the Obama administration has ceased using enhanced interrogation technique, he does not need to use them because he kills his terror suspects – even if they are unarmed. And yes, this includes American citizens.

• Obama has given terrorists such as the Boston Bomber, the Fort Hood shooter, and 9-11 masterminds civilian trials. Whereas, U.S. soldiers suspected of a crime face military tribunals.

• Obama’s Narwhale election program consists of Google engineers who illegally pirate private information to identify potential backers and potential votes.

• Obama has doubled down on Bush’s NSA phone surveillance program while initiating new privacy intrusion programs such as Prism. The expansion of the NSA program not only includes metadata analysis of phone records, but internet activity as well.

• Obama’s EPA targeted conservative farmers by handing out their private information to Left wing environmental groups which was used to harass the farmers. The EPA was also accused of charging higher fees to conservative groups than liberal organizations.

• Obama’s administration (DOJ) targeted conservative media reporters including all their correspondence with family members. The DOJ claimed they wanted to find a national security leak, but the reporters are not the source of the leak – they were only doing their job which is specifically protected under the First Amendment of the Constitution.

• Obama’s IRS targeted conservative groups and individuals by making it harder to obtain charitable status. They also harassed conservative groups to hand over private information which is not needed to garner charitable status. And if this is not bad enough, the IRS will now be responsible for enforcing ObamaCare – this will provide the government full power over the health of each individual citizen in our country. Remember, the head of the IRS said they provide “bad customer support”, yet we continue to give these cronies more power.

Many liberals will argue that Obama had nothing to do with many of these so called scandals. Maybe, but there is too much circumstantial evidence for Obama not be involved. Obama was so angered by the 2010 Citizens United decision – he chided this decision constantly on the campaign trail. He berated the Supreme Court Justices in his SOTU address. Obama and liberals pushed for a Constitutional amendment and one Liberal called the decision our modern day Dred Scott. In other words, to Obama and liberals Citizens United was equal to slavery. So why is it far-fetched for Obama to use the IRS and EPA to scrutinize and target conservative groups to minimize what effects the Citizens United decision would have on his reelection?

It is also important to note that Obama and liberals despise any election laws which require a person to show a picture ID to vote or proof of citizenship. Then why is okay for the government to collect our private information on millions of citizens, but it is not okay for these same citizens to show proof of their legalities for voting purposes and citizenship?

Why is politically incorrect to openly target or use profiling methods to find terrorists, illegal immigrants, or criminals in general if the government is already secretly doing this?

The bottom line is that the Obama administration is not transparent, but is secretly targeting organizations, groups, corporations, and individuals for the purpose of creating an enemies list, personal gain, and to win elections.

Benign Fasciculation Syndrome (BFS) and Lyme Disease and Fibromyalgia

I have found out that the test for Lyme disease is not very accurate and for that reason it is possible many people with BFS may have Lyme Disease and do not know it. I have attached a link to some very helpful information about Lyme disease.

http://mylymediseasetreatment.com/about/

Also, many people with BFS have many symptoms that coincide with Fibromyalgia symptoms – I am one of those people. I have attached an article on Fibromyalgia. It seems they now understand what causes this disease, however they still are not too sure how to cure it. However, this is a big step in the right direction. I am a true believer that many symptoms, remedies, and triggers overlap for many neurological disorders.

http://www.intidyn.com/Newsroom/article-0009.html

Obama Cements Bush Legacy

<p>Obama has expanded on many of the Bush policies that not only did I not like, but they were also the policies that liberals despised about Bush. In many respects Obama is just Bush on steroids. And for this reason, Obama has cemented the Bush legacy – especially where it deals with national security and first amendment. Let’s examine some of these massive policy blunders: <p>Spending – Bush spending increased our deficit by over 4 trillion dollars whereas Obama has already exceeded Bush’s spending in just 4 years. Obama expanded Bush spending policies on corporate bailouts and entitlements. <p>Healthcare – Bush expanded Medicare (prescription drug) and SCIP even though liberals cried foul because it “irresponsible” deficit spending. But liberals are ecstatic Obama passed the most expansive and expensive government takeover of healthcare: ObamaCare. <p>Education – Bush passed the convoluted “No Child Left Behind (NCLB)” program. What’s worse, Obama added his own bureaucratic education policy on top of NCLB: The Race to the Top. <p>War – Liberals hated the Iraq war even though we won that war and freed the nation from a genocidal lunatic. On the other hand, Obama escalated the war in Afghanistan but exited the country with the Taliban as strong as ever. And let’s not forget Obama also went to war in Libya without the consent of Congress. Remember, the weapons supplied to Libya opposition forces were used in several terrorist attacks against Westerners. <p>Civil Liberties – The left was outraged by Bush’s enhanced interrogation policies used on enemy combatants. Obama does not have to “torture” enemy combatants because he does not capture them – he kills them even if they are unarmed. In fact, Obama is the first president to order the killing of American citizens who are terrorists. To make matters worse, the Obama administration says it could use drone strikes within the United States to execute American terrorists or criminals. By choosing to kill terrorists instead of capturing them the U.S. loses the tactical advantage of trying to garner intelligence. Obama has also refused to close Guantanamo Bay even though that was his first promise. <p>Collateral Damage – The left was outraged by the loss of civilian life during the Bush wars. However, civilian life loss under the Obama drone program has been exponentially worse. <p>Executive Privilege – The left was outraged when the Bush administration hid behind executive privilege for the outing of CIA agent Valarie Plame and the firing of U.S. judges. However, Obama has hid behind privilege for the terrorists attack in Benghazi and for his failed gun walking program “Fast and Furious”. Let it be said that no one died over the Bush executive privilege fiascos, but hundreds if not thousands died behind the Obama executive privilege fiascos. <p>Executive Power – Democrats loathed the executive power grab by the Bush administration (in particular the power of the Vice President) but that does not compare to the expansion of power made by the Obama administration in the form of czars and executive orders handed down as rules, regulations, and mandates. <p> Surveillance - Obama has escalated Bush policy to increase metadata analysis of American citizens phone calls and internet use. <p>Yes, in many respects Obama is just Bush on steroids. And, yes, this means Obama has cemented the Bush legacy. </p>