High Ground Underground

Lesson #2 in Obamaspeak, or for those familiar with the novel 1984 , “New speak.” “The U.S. government has no interest in running GM.” What this really means is, that after the government bails GM out and takes a controlling interest , it is vitally interested in who runs the company – to the point of ousting the CEO; and regulating their executives’ pay, the trips they can take, and modes of transportation on trips; and mandating the kinds of cars they can make, and where, and approving/disapproving restructuring plans; and taking over their warranties. Let this be a lesson to anyone considering taking money from the government. There is life after bankruptcy, and things worse than “death” – but those of little faith are willing rather to “live” in slavery. And so Patrick Henry’s idealism (“Give me liberty or give me death!”) falls by the wayside. This is the “change” we were promised. Obama is maintaining overgenerous union contracts intact, at the expense of the company, jobs ...

Jonathan Garthwaite is keeping track of Obama’s broken campaign promises, and is up to 104 with this one reported in the NY Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/17/us/politics/17signing.html?ref=us. He’s spending political capital as fast as economic capital, and will hopefully run out of the former before the latter. Obama’s appearance on Leno the other night seemed somehow apropos, with his performance as president being somewhat a joke so far -- literally at our expense. Besides his well-publicized special Olympics gaffe, he said “people need to get back to where we know that ‘enough is enough.’” No doubt referring to the AIG bonus controversy, but certainly applicable to Obama’s & congress’ incredible deficit spending rates. They have already in 60 days committed to double the entire national debt within 5 years, and now the OMB projects $1 trillion more deficit over 5 years than the White House estimates. Perhaps you’ve heard of the “tea parties” being held across the c...

Rush to Judgment We learned this week about some of Rahm Emanuel’s (aka, “Prince of Darkness”) behind-the-scenes workings as Chief of Staff. Apparently the economy, war on terror & staffing aren’t big enough problems for the man. Now he & the Obama administration are hard at work perfecting the art of the dodge. They chose to deflect attention from the vote of no confidence by the stock market (the worst month since 1933) and public opinion, by vilifying Rush Limbaugh’s comments at CPAC Feb. 28. Specifically, that he wished Obama to fail. In context, it was a bit more nuanced – that he wants him to fail in implementing his socialistic measures that will hurt this country. Of course there was no shortage of voices on the left calling for, and gleefully, prematurely declaring, Bush’s failure in Iraq, etc., and worse. But there was no outcry from the left about the inappropriateness of that. The media seems complicit in trying to negate the sentiments voiced by Rush (and h...

ABC has called California the “front line of the recession.” I would add that if you want a sense of what several years of the new national liberal “stimulus” splurge and budget can do, just look at CA. Here are some facts. CA has the lowest credit rating of all 50 states. It has a $42 billion deficit. The top 10 counties for home devaluation in the country are all in CA. Unemployment just surpassed 10% (for the first time in 26 years) -- not counting illegals who make up some 10% of our population. CA has been hemorrhaging jobs & businesses (no doubt due to rising taxes & worsening services) – as an example, in 2006 over 100 movies were made here, but last year fewer than 10. And now our taxes are above 10% -- which will further drive businesses out of state, or the country. Speaking of services, the infrastructure has been so neglected that the roads compare with third-world conditions. Wonder why there are so many SUV’s & 4-wheel drives here? Besides the vanity...