Friday, September 30, 2011
"America was created . . . so that each of us could seek, unmolested by public needs, a private path to what is right"
Fantastic essay by Bruce Walker at The American Thinker on the unavoidably spiritual basis of the twilight struggle between right and left.
Another lame leftist meme gets put to rest
. . . by none other than Joe Biden. Tells a Florida audience to stop blaming W for the current state of the economy, that this regime owns it.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
The jihadists among us
Hezb'allah cells are infiltrating the US. It's part of a worldwide push being orchestrated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, with help from Hugo Chavez and Mexican drug cartels.
That's Iran, as in the enemy nation a top naval admiral of which says that his country plans to patrol the US east coast with warships equipped with cruise missiles.
That's Iran, as in the enemy nation a top naval admiral of which says that his country plans to patrol the US east coast with warships equipped with cruise missiles.
It's on purpose - today's edition
When historians eons from now examine the causes of Western civilization's collapse, two figures - the MEC and Steven Chu - will be prominent in their findings.
Today's evidence: federal loan guarantees for two more solar-energy companies.
Today's evidence: federal loan guarantees for two more solar-energy companies.
As of now, it's Herman for LITD
At this point, the GOP prez-candidate field shakes out thusly: There are four great candidates with some problematic aspects to them (Bachmann, Santorum, Perry and Gingrich), one contender so egregiously problematic that he is really this cycle's hold-your-nose guy (Romney), two ridiculous candidates that can be dismissed out of hand (Paul and Johnson) and one fantastic candidate whose shortcomings are negligible, at least as of this writing.
That's right. Herman Cain is the best Pub candidate this year. His personal story is, as is getting noted all over the place, remarkable. He understands the relationship between the government's power to tax and regulate and the scope of our freedom. He turned around two failing restaurant chains by containing costs and working to maximize profits. He would scrap the EPA.
As a man, he embodies deep faith, analytical prowess and plain-spokenness. He has a great sense of humor.
He's genuine in every sense.
Look for his surge to continue.
That's right. Herman Cain is the best Pub candidate this year. His personal story is, as is getting noted all over the place, remarkable. He understands the relationship between the government's power to tax and regulate and the scope of our freedom. He turned around two failing restaurant chains by containing costs and working to maximize profits. He would scrap the EPA.
As a man, he embodies deep faith, analytical prowess and plain-spokenness. He has a great sense of humor.
He's genuine in every sense.
Look for his surge to continue.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
The Most Equal Comrade hates freedom and prosperity with every fiber of his rotten being
The American Jobs Act contains a provision that would allow a job applicant to sue a business with 15 or more employees if the applicant was turned down for being unemployed.
There is no aspect of life into which this totalitarian, pro-decline regime will not intrude.
It must be stopped, or it's curtains for the United States of America.
There is no aspect of life into which this totalitarian, pro-decline regime will not intrude.
It must be stopped, or it's curtains for the United States of America.
Stupid proposals and snotty handout recipients
German finance minister Wolfgang Schauble says the US plan to boost the ESFS's lending limit - by dipping into the European Central Bank's reserves - is, in his characterization - "stupid." And Greece is reduced to outright extortion, basically telling the rest of the continent, "You know you have to come up with something - get the money from somewhere - or we'll hard default and send global markets into a tailspin."
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Softened up for conquest
Andrew Klavan has an excellent piece at Pajamas Media today in which he looks at the role of self-control in the juncture to which we have brought ourselves as a civilization.
It was a timely read for me, as I am casting about this very afternoon for a launching point for my next opinion column for our local newspaper. I feel compelled to devote the 600 words I'm allotted every few weeks to as all-encompassing a look at our present crisis as I can reasonably articulate. Each and every element of our morass is of such importance, and their connectedness so in need of pointing out as well, that to narrow my focus would, be, I feel, to give short shrift to some aspect of the situation that must not go unaddressed. Klavan's piece admirably ties together the economic, cultural and security-related facets of it.
We are where we are because we have not kept our character - our moral selves - in good enough shape to deal effectively with the timeless truths that comprise reality.
It was a timely read for me, as I am casting about this very afternoon for a launching point for my next opinion column for our local newspaper. I feel compelled to devote the 600 words I'm allotted every few weeks to as all-encompassing a look at our present crisis as I can reasonably articulate. Each and every element of our morass is of such importance, and their connectedness so in need of pointing out as well, that to narrow my focus would, be, I feel, to give short shrift to some aspect of the situation that must not go unaddressed. Klavan's piece admirably ties together the economic, cultural and security-related facets of it.
We are where we are because we have not kept our character - our moral selves - in good enough shape to deal effectively with the timeless truths that comprise reality.
Why we call them Freedom-Haters and Prosperity-Haters - today's edition
Gateway Pundit, which, for my money, has become the go-to place on the entire web to get a several-times-daily, up-to-the-minute sense of just how far gone this world is, has two recent posts about how utterly mad the EPA is.
Hardcore freedom-hating socialist Lisa Jackson is determined to kill 183,000 jobs with the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule. But not to worry; the agency will have to hire 230,000 buraeucrats to administer the damn thing.
And now it plans to force coal-fired power plants to install new technology that, as we have noted here at LITD before, will reduce this nation's electricity output by 8 percent. The new development in this story is the White House announcing that it has the EPA's back on this
Hardcore freedom-hating socialist Lisa Jackson is determined to kill 183,000 jobs with the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule. But not to worry; the agency will have to hire 230,000 buraeucrats to administer the damn thing.
And now it plans to force coal-fired power plants to install new technology that, as we have noted here at LITD before, will reduce this nation's electricity output by 8 percent. The new development in this story is the White House announcing that it has the EPA's back on this
The EU debt inspectors are saying that Greece will get its next round of bailout . . .
. . . but the moochers screaming in the streets are obviously not willing to take the steps necessary to ensure that, and thus the world economy still hangs by the illusion that the money doesn't really need to come from somewhere.
Monday, September 26, 2011
The American public, catching up to what LITD (and its predecessor, Bent Notes) has been proclaiming for years
Per Gallup, 49 percent of the populace thinks the federal government is so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to citizens' freedoms.
Oh, sheesh - today's edition
Now it's the IMF itself that may need an infusion of cash to be able to help out the Eurozone.
LITD's first law of economics: In order to do or have anything, the money has to come from somewhere.
If any entity violates this law, it doesn't take too long for it to find itself without any money.
LITD's first law of economics: In order to do or have anything, the money has to come from somewhere.
If any entity violates this law, it doesn't take too long for it to find itself without any money.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Cool development of the weekend
Herman Cain wins the GOP straw poll in Florida. Blows the doors off everyone else, in fact. A secondary noteworthy result is that Perry still beat Romney, even after Perry's three subpar debate performances.
The American people are starved for a conservative candidate who is so obviously principled that there is no questioning whether he is giving you the straight skinny when he opens his mouth. They are saying that they see this in Cain.
At the very least, this will make the other serious five or six contenders take heed and re-examine their own level of conviction.
The American people are starved for a conservative candidate who is so obviously principled that there is no questioning whether he is giving you the straight skinny when he opens his mouth. They are saying that they see this in Cain.
At the very least, this will make the other serious five or six contenders take heed and re-examine their own level of conviction.
Still embracing moral equivalency after a a year-plus in an Iranian prison; gotta give 'em points for consistency, I suppose
Debra J. Saunders on the pathetically underbaked moral vision of the three hikers - all now released - who had been arrested while hiking on the Iran - Iraq border.
Friday, September 23, 2011
Elizabeth Warren, freedom-hating chunk of dog vomit
She thinks that when someone or a group of people decide to engage in a profit-making activity, they are obligated to "give back" to the state.
The shape that decline takes once a continent decides to no longer be great
Bret Stephens at the WSJ says that post- World War II European history can be divided into three phases: Hard Facts, Convenient Fictions, and Fraud.
As I've said before, when it encroaches into the area of food, I consider it personal
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack tells the National restaurant Association that it needs to undertake as a mission altering peoples tastes so they don't want so much sodium.
The leviathan state manipulating our tongue chemistry is definitely an intrusion too far.
The leviathan state manipulating our tongue chemistry is definitely an intrusion too far.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Within days we'd see rapid healing
It's now almost 5:30 on Thursday evening. It's been nearly an hour an a half since the New York Stock Exchange closed and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 391.10 points down for the day.
Comment-thread arguments here at LITD and certainly elsewhere get caught up in exact causes of rises and falls in the major investment incices. It's certainly going on all over the web right now.
I argue with certainty that policies, intiatives and shenanigans implemented over the last three years - here in America, most importantly, but actually throughout the developed world, which is sharing our alarm this evening - are chiefly responsible for where we are this evening, but where the preponderance of the accountability lies at this late hour is beside the point.
The question is whether anybody has a solid idea / plan for reversing this situation and averting disaster.
And the answer is clear: One side of the ideological spectrum does, and the other does not.
Are you still waiting for the Most Equal Comrade to come up with something other than the garbage that even Dems with an electron's worth of intelligence are creating distance from?
Or how about his somewhat-nemesis within the FHer party, Willie the Zipper, who, while deserving plaudits for saying publicly that we most definitely don't need to be raising any taxes right now, immediately afterward lapsed into the loopiest sort of Keynesianism?
No. If this worldwide situation, and certainly its American form, shows us anything, it's that operating on basic concepts like living within our means, not chasing after fantasies (think green here), upholding that most basic of freedoms - the right to keep what is yours - and not basing public policy on feigned pity for supposedly beleagured demographics, would immediately begin to lift our toes from the prcipice and turn us around toward solid ground.
Comment-thread arguments here at LITD and certainly elsewhere get caught up in exact causes of rises and falls in the major investment incices. It's certainly going on all over the web right now.
I argue with certainty that policies, intiatives and shenanigans implemented over the last three years - here in America, most importantly, but actually throughout the developed world, which is sharing our alarm this evening - are chiefly responsible for where we are this evening, but where the preponderance of the accountability lies at this late hour is beside the point.
The question is whether anybody has a solid idea / plan for reversing this situation and averting disaster.
And the answer is clear: One side of the ideological spectrum does, and the other does not.
Are you still waiting for the Most Equal Comrade to come up with something other than the garbage that even Dems with an electron's worth of intelligence are creating distance from?
Or how about his somewhat-nemesis within the FHer party, Willie the Zipper, who, while deserving plaudits for saying publicly that we most definitely don't need to be raising any taxes right now, immediately afterward lapsed into the loopiest sort of Keynesianism?
No. If this worldwide situation, and certainly its American form, shows us anything, it's that operating on basic concepts like living within our means, not chasing after fantasies (think green here), upholding that most basic of freedoms - the right to keep what is yours - and not basing public policy on feigned pity for supposedly beleagured demographics, would immediately begin to lift our toes from the prcipice and turn us around toward solid ground.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Just wow - today's edition
CBS News has made public a secret tape made in an Arizona gun shop in which two individuals deeply involved in the Fast and Furious scandal characterize border agent Brian Terry's murder as "collateral damage."
You can only wade in so far before the stink overwhelms you
Andrew McCarthy at NRO looks at why House Juciciary chairman Lamar Smith had to request a bankruptcy investigation rather than a criminal investigation of the Solyndra scandal from the DOJ. He gives three principal reasons, but they really boil down to one: Eric Holder.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
They could have had one many times over the years
Bill Whittle (via Sister Toldjah) explains in an 11-minute video how the "Palestinians" have rejected the offer of their own state over and over again over the past century.
Even the Associated Press has to call the MEC on this one
The AP runs a fact check on the MEC's claim that the rich aren't paying their fair share in taxes and finds what we've known for years: They pay the overwhelming preponderance of the assets seized at gunpoint by the sole entity in our society with a legitimate monopoly on the use of force.
All politics is civilizational
I have never been able to work up much passion for local politics. The issues involved are rarely hills for anybody to die on. There are rarely immutable principles at stake. Most often, it amounts to various power blocs defending turf and vested interests (which actually characterizes national politics way too often).
There is a mayoral race underway in the city where I live, and it has intrigued me, espeically since the primary winnowed the candidates down to two. Both the Republican and the Democrat candidate are unlike any that either party has put forth for that office in the community's history. I have a feeling that its march toward something that doesn't bode well on a cultural level is inexorable, however. The things one might say that make one a skunk at the garden party in social settings generally, or in Facebook comment threads, have personal implications if uttered in a small municipality that has made up its mind to attain a certain kind of identity.
Both candidates are women. The Republican was gone for many years, earning a Harvard MBA and then working as an executive in the software and banking fields on both coasts. She's never been married and has no children. The Democrat is divorced with two grown children. She is on good terms with her ex-husband and the whole family is politically active, with a track record of serving on campaigns for offices from the local to the national. She is the director of a "community center" in a lower-income part of town.
Our city is about an hour south of Indianapolis and is home to the corporate headquarters of the world's premier diesel-engine maker. The local economy has been driven by manufacturing since the second half of the nineteenth century. A robust economic-development effort has brought plants of several international companies to town over the last thirty years.
While it's a publicly traded Fortune 500 firm, that diesel maker's biggest shareholders have always been members of a local family that first made its money in banking. The dynasty's patriarchal scion in the 1950s through the 80s was, in addition to being the diesel maker's board chairman, the first lay president of the National Council of Churches, a board member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and an art and architecture patron. Martin Luther King, Jr. called him the most progressive businessman in America. He was on the list of Richard Nixon's enemies that John Dean read aloud at the Watergate hearings. He deliberately set out to foster an environment in our city that someone with his curriculum vitae could be presumed to be passionate about. He passed away a few years ago and the family's influence is now waning.
I attended a debate between the mayoral candidates today. I was able to quickly make a few observations about personal style. The Pub seemed much more comfortable in her own skin, responding to questions extemporaneously and looking relaxed. Her tone of voice and facial expressions exuded an air of one organizationally seasoned. The Dem read from prepared notes no matter what the question was, indulged in far more platitudes, and seemed stiff by comparison.
I had my preconceptions about why I don't pay much attention to local politics confirmed. Much of their exchange was a matter of splitting hairs over budget, transparency, training for first responders, zoning, quality education and quality of life. As I say, one rarely finds hills on which it's worth dying in local races.
The diesel patriarch's Rockefeller-esque (and he was personal friends with David R) legacy lives, though. What did cause my ears to perk up a bit was the point at which "diversity" came into the discussion. The Pub has been accused in street rumors of wanting to dismantle our city government's human rights council. It was clear that she was eager to address the matter when a question about whether to increase its funding came up. The Dem didn't come right out and say she was for increased funding - our city, like everthing and everyone these days, is financially strapped - but she she waxed floridly about "making the LGBT community feel like it belongs" and the like. The Pub didn't make a big show over denying the rumor, but very noncahalantly said she didn't see the need to increase the human rights council's funding. She mentioned the possibility of instituting a "diversity council" in passing.
I realized something at that moment. Our city is irreversibly "inclusive" now.
Again, a major form of evidence of this came down the pike a few months ago when the worldwide HR person for the diesel maker said that the company would probably not create new jobs in Indiana if the state legislature legally defined marriage as between a man and a woman. She said that in such circumstances the comany would not be able to recruit the kind of sharp and cosmopolitan workforce it needs to be globally competitive.
And I realized that, for their noteworthy differences, these two mayoral candidates both know what the score is. In our close-knit city, where it doesn't take a great deal to become well-known in one way or another, there are now parameters on what is polite to hold as a viewpoint. There will be no breaching those parameters if one wishes to have any civic impact. The new post-family, post-defined-gender, oh-so-inclusive era is upon us.
It's pretty much that way for all things "green" as well. A few months ago, I interviewed the sharp young economic-development director for a local business magazine, and he was quick to tell me that his agency is very upfront about working to bring "green" businesses to town. So I'm quite sure that, if anyone ever had the temerity to ask either of those vying to be mayor something as inappropriate as "Will you end any and all green initiatives of the city government since you are so interested in sound fiscal practices?" the response would be a dance of obfuscation at best.
It's probably this way all over America now. You can't stand up at a town meeting and say that the centuries-old notion of a family is under assault in today's society, or that this nation is wasting billions of dollars by operating under a scientific fraud for fear of running into those who heard you a few days later at a restaurant, or the hardware store. Or church.
So it looks like any massive cultural and political shift has to start at the top and work its way down. Otherwise, all politics is indeed local and there's no reversing our fundamental transformation.
There is a mayoral race underway in the city where I live, and it has intrigued me, espeically since the primary winnowed the candidates down to two. Both the Republican and the Democrat candidate are unlike any that either party has put forth for that office in the community's history. I have a feeling that its march toward something that doesn't bode well on a cultural level is inexorable, however. The things one might say that make one a skunk at the garden party in social settings generally, or in Facebook comment threads, have personal implications if uttered in a small municipality that has made up its mind to attain a certain kind of identity.
Both candidates are women. The Republican was gone for many years, earning a Harvard MBA and then working as an executive in the software and banking fields on both coasts. She's never been married and has no children. The Democrat is divorced with two grown children. She is on good terms with her ex-husband and the whole family is politically active, with a track record of serving on campaigns for offices from the local to the national. She is the director of a "community center" in a lower-income part of town.
Our city is about an hour south of Indianapolis and is home to the corporate headquarters of the world's premier diesel-engine maker. The local economy has been driven by manufacturing since the second half of the nineteenth century. A robust economic-development effort has brought plants of several international companies to town over the last thirty years.
While it's a publicly traded Fortune 500 firm, that diesel maker's biggest shareholders have always been members of a local family that first made its money in banking. The dynasty's patriarchal scion in the 1950s through the 80s was, in addition to being the diesel maker's board chairman, the first lay president of the National Council of Churches, a board member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and an art and architecture patron. Martin Luther King, Jr. called him the most progressive businessman in America. He was on the list of Richard Nixon's enemies that John Dean read aloud at the Watergate hearings. He deliberately set out to foster an environment in our city that someone with his curriculum vitae could be presumed to be passionate about. He passed away a few years ago and the family's influence is now waning.
I attended a debate between the mayoral candidates today. I was able to quickly make a few observations about personal style. The Pub seemed much more comfortable in her own skin, responding to questions extemporaneously and looking relaxed. Her tone of voice and facial expressions exuded an air of one organizationally seasoned. The Dem read from prepared notes no matter what the question was, indulged in far more platitudes, and seemed stiff by comparison.
I had my preconceptions about why I don't pay much attention to local politics confirmed. Much of their exchange was a matter of splitting hairs over budget, transparency, training for first responders, zoning, quality education and quality of life. As I say, one rarely finds hills on which it's worth dying in local races.
The diesel patriarch's Rockefeller-esque (and he was personal friends with David R) legacy lives, though. What did cause my ears to perk up a bit was the point at which "diversity" came into the discussion. The Pub has been accused in street rumors of wanting to dismantle our city government's human rights council. It was clear that she was eager to address the matter when a question about whether to increase its funding came up. The Dem didn't come right out and say she was for increased funding - our city, like everthing and everyone these days, is financially strapped - but she she waxed floridly about "making the LGBT community feel like it belongs" and the like. The Pub didn't make a big show over denying the rumor, but very noncahalantly said she didn't see the need to increase the human rights council's funding. She mentioned the possibility of instituting a "diversity council" in passing.
I realized something at that moment. Our city is irreversibly "inclusive" now.
Again, a major form of evidence of this came down the pike a few months ago when the worldwide HR person for the diesel maker said that the company would probably not create new jobs in Indiana if the state legislature legally defined marriage as between a man and a woman. She said that in such circumstances the comany would not be able to recruit the kind of sharp and cosmopolitan workforce it needs to be globally competitive.
And I realized that, for their noteworthy differences, these two mayoral candidates both know what the score is. In our close-knit city, where it doesn't take a great deal to become well-known in one way or another, there are now parameters on what is polite to hold as a viewpoint. There will be no breaching those parameters if one wishes to have any civic impact. The new post-family, post-defined-gender, oh-so-inclusive era is upon us.
It's pretty much that way for all things "green" as well. A few months ago, I interviewed the sharp young economic-development director for a local business magazine, and he was quick to tell me that his agency is very upfront about working to bring "green" businesses to town. So I'm quite sure that, if anyone ever had the temerity to ask either of those vying to be mayor something as inappropriate as "Will you end any and all green initiatives of the city government since you are so interested in sound fiscal practices?" the response would be a dance of obfuscation at best.
It's probably this way all over America now. You can't stand up at a town meeting and say that the centuries-old notion of a family is under assault in today's society, or that this nation is wasting billions of dollars by operating under a scientific fraud for fear of running into those who heard you a few days later at a restaurant, or the hardware store. Or church.
So it looks like any massive cultural and political shift has to start at the top and work its way down. Otherwise, all politics is indeed local and there's no reversing our fundamental transformation.
The proof is right a cross the pond
Charles Kadlec at Forbes on the results of Greece, Portugal et al trying tax increases on the most productive capital in their economies to get out of their fiscal morass. It's causing yet more harm.
They're generally on balance good people in terms of their character
Great Townhall column by Mona Charen on why she gives three cheers for the rich. They tend to be the most inventive, industrious and civic-minded among us.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Well, he did it
The MEC stepped out to the Rose Garden this morning and announced that his spanking new plan to reduce the deficit hinges on $1.5 trillion more in assets seized at gunpoint from successful Americans. Balanced approach and all that.
A different definition of "now" than most of us are familiar with
Great Andrew Malcolm column at the LA Times on how the FHers in the Senate interpret the MEC's pass-this-jobs-bill-now demand.
"There's no time to be discouraged"
Mike Adams, a criminology professor at UNC and a Townhall column who usually devotes his space to taking on campus leftist orthodoxy, writes a touching piece today about an old hometown musician buddy of his who died right before his fortieth birthday, and the humbling wisdom that their friendship has imparted to him.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
Remember this name
Steve Spinner. He's the second big-time MEC fundraiser who is implicated in the Solyndra scandal.
The dangerous week ahead
The vote that the Palestinians are going to force on either the General Assembly or the Security Council of the UN this coming week will have horrible consequences however it turns out. If there is a veto, expect Israel's enemies and adversaries such as Iran and Turkey to raise hell, and not just within the walls of the building on the East River. And, of course, if the vote goes through in the affirmative, Israel will immediately have to act in defiance of it in order to keep East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.
Pointy-heads are scrambling to find a face-saving way for all parties involved to climb back down from this ominous juncture, but the PA's insistence on taking its position of blackmail to the brink makes such a defusing unlikely.
Pointy-heads are scrambling to find a face-saving way for all parties involved to climb back down from this ominous juncture, but the PA's insistence on taking its position of blackmail to the brink makes such a defusing unlikely.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
When the Associated Press has to report it . . .
Gateway Pundit notes that this is pretty unvarnished for MSM standards. The headline plainly states that the Solyndra loan was restructured as a cramdown in favor of the big MEC donor at the expense of us taxpayers.
Apparently no stomach for what really needs to be done
Michelle Malkin looks at the continuing-resolution bill that will be up for a vote in Congress next week. It's one of those instances that has Pub "leadership" squaring off against those who are trying with all their might to inject some principle and sense of reality into our nation's legislative proceedings.
Nothing, not even the most laudible steps forward, that has been done to curb spending addresses the real magnitude of what we face.
This is a condition - at its root a spiritual shortcoming, a collective failure of character - that afflicts the entire West. Look at Europe. The obviously failing economies are pretty much demanding that the ones that are doing fairly well (Germany, mainly) cough up what is needed to keeping them from descending into irreversible chaos.
I commend the Republican Study Committee, the Jeff Flakes and the Ron Johnsons, for standing their ground in the face of that whole "this-is-the-best-we-can-do-given-the-current-realities-of-Washington" mentality that John Boehner unfortunately falls prey to with depressing frequency. Still, let us acknowledge that the whole thing is a case of nibbling at the edges.
It's the saddest of spectacles. Ostensible grown-ups in suits and dresses, holding meetings and signing agreements, but plainly sending the message that this great civilization we've built over the last four thousand years apparently can't be saved from its self-destructive impulses.
It's very late in the day.
Nothing, not even the most laudible steps forward, that has been done to curb spending addresses the real magnitude of what we face.
This is a condition - at its root a spiritual shortcoming, a collective failure of character - that afflicts the entire West. Look at Europe. The obviously failing economies are pretty much demanding that the ones that are doing fairly well (Germany, mainly) cough up what is needed to keeping them from descending into irreversible chaos.
I commend the Republican Study Committee, the Jeff Flakes and the Ron Johnsons, for standing their ground in the face of that whole "this-is-the-best-we-can-do-given-the-current-realities-of-Washington" mentality that John Boehner unfortunately falls prey to with depressing frequency. Still, let us acknowledge that the whole thing is a case of nibbling at the edges.
It's the saddest of spectacles. Ostensible grown-ups in suits and dresses, holding meetings and signing agreements, but plainly sending the message that this great civilization we've built over the last four thousand years apparently can't be saved from its self-destructive impulses.
It's very late in the day.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
What they can't get done by legislation, fiat or judicial overreach they accomplish with subtler forms of pressure
Darden Restaurants announces that it will cut the calories and sodium content of the food at its Red Lobster and Olive Garden chains and other properties, down to how much and by when. Guess who was at the announcement? That's right, the patron saint of the underserved food desert and the shipped-in-at-the-last-minute photo op roots vegetables.
It reminds me of that picture of various truck company execs and Tim Solso of Cummins stnding behind the Most Equal Comrade in the Rose Garden last spring for the signing ceremony for the new fuel efficiency standards diktat.
"Oh, look Dear Leader! We're one step ahead! We're already preparing to comply with the new Five-Year plan! Is there anything else you want to tell us about how to make our products?"
UPDATE: Guess which conglomerate of restaurant chains was one of the first corporations to receive a waiver from FHer-care? Hint: The name starts with a "D".
It reminds me of that picture of various truck company execs and Tim Solso of Cummins stnding behind the Most Equal Comrade in the Rose Garden last spring for the signing ceremony for the new fuel efficiency standards diktat.
"Oh, look Dear Leader! We're one step ahead! We're already preparing to comply with the new Five-Year plan! Is there anything else you want to tell us about how to make our products?"
UPDATE: Guess which conglomerate of restaurant chains was one of the first corporations to receive a waiver from FHer-care? Hint: The name starts with a "D".
Highest since June
The weekly number of jobless claims, that is. And unexpectedly, of course. Not is that not only no longer a laugh line, it now makes ordinary Americans feel like hurling.
Rammed through on the basis of a lie
Are you familiar with CLASS? It's a provision within FHer-care. During the runup to the ram-through of FHer-care in Congress, it was touted as a voluntary program that would be finded with premiums. In typical Freedom-Hater fashion, it was actually a means to cook actuarial numbers so the CBO wouldn't think the whole thing was so badly underfunded after all. But, speaking of actuarial numbers, some forecasters at Medicare tried to warn HHS officials in a series of e-mails that the whole thing was a disaster from the get-go.
We're just now finding out about those e-mails.
Tyrants haven't a molecule's worth of honor.
We're just now finding out about those e-mails.
Tyrants haven't a molecule's worth of honor.
The fox that guards the henhouse
LITD hasn't posted much about the Department of Justice under the MEC regime. It's probably time to give it some attention. Between the corruption and ineptitude that both pervade it, is is one of the most insidious forms that the MEC regime's destruction of what we know as America has taken.
There is its joining a foreign country - Mexico - to sue an American state - Arizona - over that state's passing a law that merely reiterates federal law concerning the questioning of suspected illegal aliens.
There is its overlooking of voter-intimidation situations.
There is the way it has handled terrorism cases.
There is Eric Holder's "nation of cowards" remarks.
There is the gun-running scandal ("Operation Fast and Furious"), based on one of the goofiest ideas to ever come down the pike, namely, that by letting traceable weapons get into the hands of known narco-gangsters, we could catch big fish without abetting mayhem in the process.
There is the department's hiring practices, which show a clear pattern of seeking out candidates for positions based on how far-left they were. J. Christian Adams, a former DOJ staff member, has been contributing an excellent series on this to Pajamas Media.
If your looking for the true face of this regime with no cosmetics, the DOJ provides it.
There is its joining a foreign country - Mexico - to sue an American state - Arizona - over that state's passing a law that merely reiterates federal law concerning the questioning of suspected illegal aliens.
There is its overlooking of voter-intimidation situations.
There is the way it has handled terrorism cases.
There is Eric Holder's "nation of cowards" remarks.
There is the gun-running scandal ("Operation Fast and Furious"), based on one of the goofiest ideas to ever come down the pike, namely, that by letting traceable weapons get into the hands of known narco-gangsters, we could catch big fish without abetting mayhem in the process.
There is the department's hiring practices, which show a clear pattern of seeking out candidates for positions based on how far-left they were. J. Christian Adams, a former DOJ staff member, has been contributing an excellent series on this to Pajamas Media.
If your looking for the true face of this regime with no cosmetics, the DOJ provides it.
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
At some point, the regime will have to get an accurate take on how big the groundswell of resistance is
Per a Tarrance Group / Public Notice poll, three quarters of Americans think the business world is over-regulated. Want some internals? Majorites of Pubs, Dems and indies feel this way.
Have you wondered what the aftermath of the AFL-CIO longshoreman port attack in Washingtoh state was?
Admittedly, there's a lot coming across our radar screens these days, so you may not have thought much lately about what happened in the wake of that thug riot in Longview, WA.
There were a whopping two arrests.
There were a whopping two arrests.
Beautiful and glorious - today's edition
Bob Turner wins NY-9, the seat held until three months ago by package-posting FHer Anthony Weiner.
The pro-freedom-and-prosperity side won the special election in Nevada as well.
We cherish our freedom. We are determined to bring Western civilization back from its flatline status. And these elections proves that we can win this overall struggle.
The pro-freedom-and-prosperity side won the special election in Nevada as well.
We cherish our freedom. We are determined to bring Western civilization back from its flatline status. And these elections proves that we can win this overall struggle.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
And under the thumb of what regime have we been struggling for that length of time?
The poverty rate has been rising for three straight years - and is now at an 18-year high. Median income is falling.
I think about the MEC at his soup-kitchen photo op on September 11 (that whole we-should-commemorate-that-horrific-act-of-war-by-engaging-in-service meme) and I'm reminded of some television drama I saw years ago. It was set in England in, I think, the 1500s. There was a scene depicting a family living the highway robber/ beggar life on the outskirts of London. The parents had purposely spilled acid on a daughter's arm to create a ghastly sore that they could show to passersby who might be sufficiently compelled by pity to shell out a few farthings. She would outstretch her ruined limb and say "Keeps me awake at night, it does." It seems to me that the MEC, who is orchestrating America's decline, undrtakes activities like the soup kitchen in the same spirit. He is damaging our nation in order to gin up pity and motivate those who still have some money as well as a soft spot for those "who have not done so well in life's lottery" to pony up for his Alinskyite scheme.
It's as obscene as anything I've ever witnessed.
I think about the MEC at his soup-kitchen photo op on September 11 (that whole we-should-commemorate-that-horrific-act-of-war-by-engaging-in-service meme) and I'm reminded of some television drama I saw years ago. It was set in England in, I think, the 1500s. There was a scene depicting a family living the highway robber/ beggar life on the outskirts of London. The parents had purposely spilled acid on a daughter's arm to create a ghastly sore that they could show to passersby who might be sufficiently compelled by pity to shell out a few farthings. She would outstretch her ruined limb and say "Keeps me awake at night, it does." It seems to me that the MEC, who is orchestrating America's decline, undrtakes activities like the soup kitchen in the same spirit. He is damaging our nation in order to gin up pity and motivate those who still have some money as well as a soft spot for those "who have not done so well in life's lottery" to pony up for his Alinskyite scheme.
It's as obscene as anything I've ever witnessed.
Monday, September 12, 2011
King Abdullah makes it explicit
Israel's allies, such as they've ever been, are getting fewer all the time. Jordan's king says his country's official policy is Jerusalem as Palestinian capital and a "right of return" for "refugees."
Sunday, September 11, 2011
The last decade: Is our decline irreversible?
A powerful essay at The American Thinker comparing the state of our national character in the 1940s and that of the last ten years - actually, the last forty. There is no unity now because the American left fears fealty to Judeo-Christian values and a resolve to defeat evil more than it does America's actual enemies.
Beuatiful and glorious - today's edition
FHer party operatives are openly worried about the MEC's reelection chances. This is per the NYT, and the article really makes no attempt to sugarcoat the situation.
If Western civilization has a shot at survival, it's because of fine young men like this
Today's nationally syndicated Mallard Fillmore strip is a salute to Aaron Byers.
I know Aaron personally and had the honor of seeing him off before his first tour of Afghanistan. His mother is my dance instructor.
The backstory: Bruce Tinsley, the creator of Mallard Fillmore, lives in my city. His father, Ed, who at one time had been an accomplished ballroom dancer, passed away recently after a lengthy bout wtih Alzheimer's disease. Ronda (Aaron's mom) organizes showcases about two or three times a year for the students at her studio. My wife and I have been in several. For several years, the highlight of each showcase was the dance number that Ronda would do with Ed. He was a beloved figure in the Dance Street community. Bruce would bring him to rehearsals a few times prior to each showcase, as well as to the showcase itself. (I wrote about this in the fall issue of Enjoy!, a local lifestyle magazine.) (Bruce himself didn't dance.)
Bruce knew the story of how Aaron had seen the 9/11 events live on television and resolved, then and there, to become a United States Marine, which he now is. He told Ronda and her husband he would do this in the 9/11/11 installment of his strip. And so he has.
It's a humbling blessing to know such a great circle of people.
I know Aaron personally and had the honor of seeing him off before his first tour of Afghanistan. His mother is my dance instructor.
The backstory: Bruce Tinsley, the creator of Mallard Fillmore, lives in my city. His father, Ed, who at one time had been an accomplished ballroom dancer, passed away recently after a lengthy bout wtih Alzheimer's disease. Ronda (Aaron's mom) organizes showcases about two or three times a year for the students at her studio. My wife and I have been in several. For several years, the highlight of each showcase was the dance number that Ronda would do with Ed. He was a beloved figure in the Dance Street community. Bruce would bring him to rehearsals a few times prior to each showcase, as well as to the showcase itself. (I wrote about this in the fall issue of Enjoy!, a local lifestyle magazine.) (Bruce himself didn't dance.)
Bruce knew the story of how Aaron had seen the 9/11 events live on television and resolved, then and there, to become a United States Marine, which he now is. He told Ronda and her husband he would do this in the 9/11/11 installment of his strip. And so he has.
It's a humbling blessing to know such a great circle of people.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
One of those stories that involves all the various levels of civilizational rot we're currently experiencing
Portland, Oregon's public-school system has shut down a "hip-hop-themed" charter school.
Well, let's hope so. How did such a garbage project ever get as far as it did?
From a physical-structure standpoint, the school was woefully unready to accomodate students.
It has already blown through two federal grants, and is characterized as being in "financial shambles."
Of course, among the levels on which this is disgusting and outrageous, there is the squandering of yet more of our tax dollars.
Right now, however, I'd like to zero in on the cutlural implications of the school's name and its area of focus. It is called REAL Prep, and it was to be a school that was big on teaching the recording arts.
This crud about "keeping it real" has plagued our lexicon for some time. It's a flimsy excuse for societal deterioration in inner cities, plain and simple. And that's the whole basis behind hip-hop and has been going back to the spoken word performance art of Gil-Scott Heron. That, in turn, has its roots in the larger countecultural impulse which has now poisoned out society so thoroughly. The idea is that "You establishment muckety-mucks are so caught up in the artifice of your institutional constructs and rigid modes of behavior and dress that you can't even see what is going down on the street." What dog vomit. What has been going down on the street for the last fifty years has been exploitative sex, instant neurological gratification of all sorts, and no sense of self-respect, loyalty to anyone or anything, and the destruction of basic civilizational building blocks such as language.
And this business of society puking all over itself to "understand the youth" and "give them a forum for self-expression" goes back as far as my junior-high days, when in the poetry portions of my English classes the teachers would incorporate discussions of folk-rock lyrics on "relevant social issues."
And let's hold off on teaching the kiddies how to equalize bass and treble and balance 24 tracks and place microphones around a studio and the like until they can pass a damn test indicating they know when the Civil War happened, how many elements there are in the periodic table, and who John Milton was.
It's really, really late in the day.
Well, let's hope so. How did such a garbage project ever get as far as it did?
From a physical-structure standpoint, the school was woefully unready to accomodate students.
It has already blown through two federal grants, and is characterized as being in "financial shambles."
Of course, among the levels on which this is disgusting and outrageous, there is the squandering of yet more of our tax dollars.
Right now, however, I'd like to zero in on the cutlural implications of the school's name and its area of focus. It is called REAL Prep, and it was to be a school that was big on teaching the recording arts.
This crud about "keeping it real" has plagued our lexicon for some time. It's a flimsy excuse for societal deterioration in inner cities, plain and simple. And that's the whole basis behind hip-hop and has been going back to the spoken word performance art of Gil-Scott Heron. That, in turn, has its roots in the larger countecultural impulse which has now poisoned out society so thoroughly. The idea is that "You establishment muckety-mucks are so caught up in the artifice of your institutional constructs and rigid modes of behavior and dress that you can't even see what is going down on the street." What dog vomit. What has been going down on the street for the last fifty years has been exploitative sex, instant neurological gratification of all sorts, and no sense of self-respect, loyalty to anyone or anything, and the destruction of basic civilizational building blocks such as language.
And this business of society puking all over itself to "understand the youth" and "give them a forum for self-expression" goes back as far as my junior-high days, when in the poetry portions of my English classes the teachers would incorporate discussions of folk-rock lyrics on "relevant social issues."
And let's hold off on teaching the kiddies how to equalize bass and treble and balance 24 tracks and place microphones around a studio and the like until they can pass a damn test indicating they know when the Civil War happened, how many elements there are in the periodic table, and who John Milton was.
It's really, really late in the day.
Egyptian police made no attempt to stop them
A mob spent hours tearing down the wall around the Israeli embassy compound in Cairo with bare hands and hammers and then rushed the embassy itself, made then made its way to offices on the upper floor and dumped hundereds of Hebrew-language documents out a window.
Egyptian police stood by and watched.
Egyptian police stood by and watched.
Friday, September 9, 2011
Accurate diagnosis, but precisely the wrong prescription
Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, says the world economy is entering a "dangerous new phase." But then she says she's impressed with the dog vomit the MEC presented in his prattle to Congress last evening.
The stock market is decidedly unimpressed with what the MEC - and Bernanke - had to say.
The stock market is decidedly unimpressed with what the MEC - and Bernanke - had to say.
Mitt's attempt to sound like he's upholding some big principle on this issue falls flat - real flat
He knows he and Rick Perry are essentially saying the same thing about Social Security. His attempts to parse it sufficiently to give the appearance of some kind of wedge is a lot of politician's hot air.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
If he were going to change course, he would have done it by now
In the WSJ, Michael J. Boskin lists the economic records the pro-decline, American-greatness-disdaining Most Equal Comrade has set.
Sheesh, it's not even a laugh line anymore
Reuters says the latest rise in jobless claims is - grab a dictionary in case this word is new to your vocabluary - unexpected.
Life in the MEC's thugocracy - today's edition
Richard Trumka will be sitting with the MEC's peeps at the prattle tonight. Meanwhile, out in Washington State, longshoreman members of his labor organization storm a port, take hostages and wreak havoc.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
The MEC will feel the heat of his glare
Gibson Guitar CEO Henry Juszkiewicz will be the guest of Tennessee Representative Marsha Blackburn - R when the MEC gives his jobs prattle tomorrow night.
Steven Chu - idiot or lunatic?
The energy secretary - he of the paint-all-the-world's-rooftops-white proposal - says that Solyndra was a success.
We already know enough to give it a big thumbs-down
We have sufficient foreknowledge of what the Most Equal Comrade will propose in his prattle tomorrow evening to reject it out of hand as garbage. Socialism. A sly attempt to increase FHers' power disguised as constructive solutions to our economic crisis.
For one thing, this attempt to reassure us that the spending will be "offset" is nothing but more seizure of our assets at gunpoint, or, as Al Hunt puts it in the Bloomberg article to which I've linked, it will "offset the cost of the short-term jobs measures by raising revenues in later years."
There's the continuation of the payroll-tax holiday, which is nice, but in the way that a sip of water when you're digging ditches on a sweltering afternoon and about to collapse is nice.
Of course, there's "infrastructure spending." There may not be a market for working on the "infrastructure," but there sure is a lot of union gravy to be ladled out.
There's "direct aid to local governments." Also known as moving the same stinking money around. If Locale A needs more money to fund whatever it thinks it needs to fund, let it "enhance" its own stinking "revenue" and if I live there and don't like it, I'll move. But having me send it in to the federal leviathan and then sending it back to my state or city is a blatant cheap trick.
There's subsidized job-training.
Fortunately, the Pub prez candidates have tonight to not only offer their own proposals but to expose this for the dog vomit that it is. It's the best slate we've had in years, so I'm fairly confident that most if not all of them will attack it with sufficient clarity and passion to make some good headlines for tomorrow morning.
For one thing, this attempt to reassure us that the spending will be "offset" is nothing but more seizure of our assets at gunpoint, or, as Al Hunt puts it in the Bloomberg article to which I've linked, it will "offset the cost of the short-term jobs measures by raising revenues in later years."
There's the continuation of the payroll-tax holiday, which is nice, but in the way that a sip of water when you're digging ditches on a sweltering afternoon and about to collapse is nice.
Of course, there's "infrastructure spending." There may not be a market for working on the "infrastructure," but there sure is a lot of union gravy to be ladled out.
There's "direct aid to local governments." Also known as moving the same stinking money around. If Locale A needs more money to fund whatever it thinks it needs to fund, let it "enhance" its own stinking "revenue" and if I live there and don't like it, I'll move. But having me send it in to the federal leviathan and then sending it back to my state or city is a blatant cheap trick.
There's subsidized job-training.
Fortunately, the Pub prez candidates have tonight to not only offer their own proposals but to expose this for the dog vomit that it is. It's the best slate we've had in years, so I'm fairly confident that most if not all of them will attack it with sufficient clarity and passion to make some good headlines for tomorrow morning.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
Israel, more isolated than ever
There is, of course, the MEC regime's attempt to demand that it trade land for peace. There are the al-Qaeda cells operating in the Sinai. There are the sophisticated and increasingly lethal weapons (some from Libya) being stored and used in Gaza. There is the IAEA's assessment that Iran is definitely about to get nukes. There is the UN's Round Three of the Durban Conference. And now, Turkey is stepping up naval patrols in the eastern Mediterranean.
Michael J. Totten at Pajamas Media also notes Turkey's expulsion of Israel's diplomatic corps. Totten says that the Erdogan regime, by simultaneously condemning what the Assad regime is doing in Syria and showing increasing hostility to Israel, is attempting to serve as a foil to the regional influence of the mullocracy in Iran. In all this vying for regional prominence, where is the nation-state that will forthrightly assert staunch support for the area's only Western country?
Michael J. Totten at Pajamas Media also notes Turkey's expulsion of Israel's diplomatic corps. Totten says that the Erdogan regime, by simultaneously condemning what the Assad regime is doing in Syria and showing increasing hostility to Israel, is attempting to serve as a foil to the regional influence of the mullocracy in Iran. In all this vying for regional prominence, where is the nation-state that will forthrightly assert staunch support for the area's only Western country?
Actually, he's not inaccurate to characterize it as war
Jimmy Hoffa's remarks in a warm-up speech prior to the MEC taking the stage in Detroit don't shock me. Not that I'm inured and blase about the matter. It's just that I've considered the Democrat party and the American / Western left in general to be, since the early 70s, when the radicals decided to come back into the fold and "work within the system" and go to law school and journalism school and infitrate everything from think tanks to the churches to the corporate world, or become community organizers, to be the enemy of basic human freedom.
Of course, this is a war. It's about very basic matters, such as the freedom to keep that which one earns or otherwise acquires lawfully. It's about the preservation of common sense and the definitions of basic terms such as "gender," "family," "rights," "workers" and "investment."
I'm currently reading The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes, the fresh look at the unfolding of the Great Depression. One's jaw drops upon really absorbing just what a massive enlargement of the federal government FDR and such associates as Rex Tugwell, Ray Moley, Harold Ickes and David Lillienthal wrought. And, of course, one can go back further, as Jonah Goldberg has done in Liberal Fascism, and see just how radical the progressive vision of Herbert Croly, John Dewey, Woodrow Wilson et al was. Or one can fast-forward to the 1960s, and look at what LBJ inflicted on America with his Great Society programs.
But it was when the radicals, who as late as 1968 still considered themselves so outside the conventionally defined national debate (outside the convention - I just caught my own inadvertent pun), decided to take an incremental, from-the-inside approach that the finishing touches were put on theAmerican left's boldness. They were now ready to use their hip new fantasies, such as environmental doom, flexibility in the definition of human sexuality, the morally relativistic refusal to defend any kind of notion of Western civilization, and the deconstruction of the basic notion of what art is, to marshall all the elements that had been coming down the pike for nearly a century and - well, go to war.
And while I always have and always will forthrightly assert that the MEC is a revolutionary socialist, I don't want to leave anyone with the impression that I think he is some kind of departure from a Democrat party that had prior to him been genial and decent. We would have been at this juncture eight years earlier had Al Gore won the 2000 election, or four years earlier had John Kerry won in 2004. If we'd had a less principled Republican as president in the 1980s, Tip O'Neill's sabotage of the fight against Soviet communism would have prolonged the Cold War or possibly brought about our defeat in it.
So let's all get any flinching that we need to do over with now. Go ahead and envision just how nasty and vicious the national political scene is going to get over the next fifteen months. Get your brain around it. And then resolve to win. No. Matter. What.
Of course, this is a war. It's about very basic matters, such as the freedom to keep that which one earns or otherwise acquires lawfully. It's about the preservation of common sense and the definitions of basic terms such as "gender," "family," "rights," "workers" and "investment."
I'm currently reading The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes, the fresh look at the unfolding of the Great Depression. One's jaw drops upon really absorbing just what a massive enlargement of the federal government FDR and such associates as Rex Tugwell, Ray Moley, Harold Ickes and David Lillienthal wrought. And, of course, one can go back further, as Jonah Goldberg has done in Liberal Fascism, and see just how radical the progressive vision of Herbert Croly, John Dewey, Woodrow Wilson et al was. Or one can fast-forward to the 1960s, and look at what LBJ inflicted on America with his Great Society programs.
But it was when the radicals, who as late as 1968 still considered themselves so outside the conventionally defined national debate (outside the convention - I just caught my own inadvertent pun), decided to take an incremental, from-the-inside approach that the finishing touches were put on theAmerican left's boldness. They were now ready to use their hip new fantasies, such as environmental doom, flexibility in the definition of human sexuality, the morally relativistic refusal to defend any kind of notion of Western civilization, and the deconstruction of the basic notion of what art is, to marshall all the elements that had been coming down the pike for nearly a century and - well, go to war.
And while I always have and always will forthrightly assert that the MEC is a revolutionary socialist, I don't want to leave anyone with the impression that I think he is some kind of departure from a Democrat party that had prior to him been genial and decent. We would have been at this juncture eight years earlier had Al Gore won the 2000 election, or four years earlier had John Kerry won in 2004. If we'd had a less principled Republican as president in the 1980s, Tip O'Neill's sabotage of the fight against Soviet communism would have prolonged the Cold War or possibly brought about our defeat in it.
So let's all get any flinching that we need to do over with now. Go ahead and envision just how nasty and vicious the national political scene is going to get over the next fifteen months. Get your brain around it. And then resolve to win. No. Matter. What.
Monday, September 5, 2011
Why Britain is done for - today's edition
Lots of other bloggers have chimed in on this, but it's so chilling and disgusting - and such a reminder of where we're headed if we don't refuse to respond like cattle to the leviathan state - that LITD feels it's important to bring to your attention here as well.
As if the family breakdown plauguing the West needed help.
As if the family breakdown plauguing the West needed help.
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Don't ever stand for some FHer trotting out that 655,000 figure again
The Lancet, the publication that first put it out as the number of civilian casualties resulting from the US invasion of Iraq, has retratcted it. It was about a sixth of that.
Saturday, September 3, 2011
About those EPA smog regs the MEC backed away from . . .
The technology for complying with the standards they set does not exist.
George Kaiser has some 'splainin' to do
. . . about those multiple visits the big investor in Solyndra made to the White House in the months prior to it going belly-up.
I'd like to know if he was aware at that time that the damn place was shipping red ink out the door with every stinkin' panel.
I'd like to know if he was aware at that time that the damn place was shipping red ink out the door with every stinkin' panel.
Sails flapping, the rudder wobbling, the wind kicking up, and the skipper is thinking about where to eat lunch
As you know by now, the latest BLS jobs report shows zero job creation for the month of August.
You probably also know that the White House is lowering expectations for next week's jobs speech by the MEC. It is now just part of an ongoing, doncha know, focus on the whole economic picture, which will include yet more trips into the heartland and more legislative initiatives and more finger-wagging at Congress for not buying into all the hooey. So why in the hell did he feel, after a Martha's Vineyard vacation and a Camp David weekend and myriad other diversions, that it was so all-fired important to choose the specific date he did (from which he had to back down) and call together the entire legislative branch of the federal government?
I, like a number of pundits, have spent considerable time trying to parse the distinction between this guy's radical zeal - his obvious determination to "transform America" - and his equally obvious incompetence. It now looks like the two go hand in hand. That would explain why he is catching hell from fellow lefties such as Bernie Sanders, Maxine Waters and Michael Moore. He can't even do implementation of socialist vision properly. Of course, normal people are pleased that he backed down from the new EPA smog regs, but that move has made him a target for big-time ire from his own bunch.
He's just plain in over his head. Yes, he was the darling of the Chicago radical crowd during his community-organizer days. The Midwest Academy / UNO / Public Allies / New Party / Trinity Church / ACORN crowd adored him, but mainly as a handsome face to put on their activities. He was never held accountable for whether he was really bringing about socialist utopia or merely keeping the inner-city constituents suitably agitated to vote the proper ticket. He moved up the ladder so fast with no real accomplishments at any step along the way - besides "networking," forming coalitions and getting his name circulated among the right people - that he never learned the basic human behavior of getting something actually done that any of us - freedom-loving conservative, the mind-his-own-business apolitical citizen, or the die-hard Marxist revolutionary - have to learn to get anywhere.
And so here he is, faced with a desperately sick American - make that global - economy, a world stage changing at a dizzying pace, and a culture characterized by polarization, and, rather than being able to address it out of the conviction his leftist base is clamoring for, he muddles along each day, each hour, in utter confusion.
I wouldn't ordinarily do this - I generally reserve this blog for offering my two-cents'-woth to the right regarding the effective path forward - but to the raised-fist left, my advice is this: next time you think you have a shot at putting up one of your own as a presidential contender, make sure it's someone who walks the talk. You know, someone with a work ethic.
You probably also know that the White House is lowering expectations for next week's jobs speech by the MEC. It is now just part of an ongoing, doncha know, focus on the whole economic picture, which will include yet more trips into the heartland and more legislative initiatives and more finger-wagging at Congress for not buying into all the hooey. So why in the hell did he feel, after a Martha's Vineyard vacation and a Camp David weekend and myriad other diversions, that it was so all-fired important to choose the specific date he did (from which he had to back down) and call together the entire legislative branch of the federal government?
I, like a number of pundits, have spent considerable time trying to parse the distinction between this guy's radical zeal - his obvious determination to "transform America" - and his equally obvious incompetence. It now looks like the two go hand in hand. That would explain why he is catching hell from fellow lefties such as Bernie Sanders, Maxine Waters and Michael Moore. He can't even do implementation of socialist vision properly. Of course, normal people are pleased that he backed down from the new EPA smog regs, but that move has made him a target for big-time ire from his own bunch.
He's just plain in over his head. Yes, he was the darling of the Chicago radical crowd during his community-organizer days. The Midwest Academy / UNO / Public Allies / New Party / Trinity Church / ACORN crowd adored him, but mainly as a handsome face to put on their activities. He was never held accountable for whether he was really bringing about socialist utopia or merely keeping the inner-city constituents suitably agitated to vote the proper ticket. He moved up the ladder so fast with no real accomplishments at any step along the way - besides "networking," forming coalitions and getting his name circulated among the right people - that he never learned the basic human behavior of getting something actually done that any of us - freedom-loving conservative, the mind-his-own-business apolitical citizen, or the die-hard Marxist revolutionary - have to learn to get anywhere.
And so here he is, faced with a desperately sick American - make that global - economy, a world stage changing at a dizzying pace, and a culture characterized by polarization, and, rather than being able to address it out of the conviction his leftist base is clamoring for, he muddles along each day, each hour, in utter confusion.
I wouldn't ordinarily do this - I generally reserve this blog for offering my two-cents'-woth to the right regarding the effective path forward - but to the raised-fist left, my advice is this: next time you think you have a shot at putting up one of your own as a presidential contender, make sure it's someone who walks the talk. You know, someone with a work ethic.
Friday, September 2, 2011
The madhouse that our culture has become
How in the hell do you make polite chitchat with a mom at the playground who starts off the conversation by saying she's into gender-neutral parenting?
The MEC backs down again - today's edition
He notifies Lisa Jackson at the EPA that the regime is going to drop the stringent new smog regs. There are already howls from the FHer base.
He got squeezed from both sides, but we squeezed harder.
He got squeezed from both sides, but we squeezed harder.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
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