America, The Gulliver of Nations

Powerline posts a keen insight on how Great Britain's present, may become our future:

Once the federal government becomes so deeply involved in allocating health care, it will come to be a dominant focus of political discourse.

Over the years watching on C-Span the British Prime Minister's Question Time, I've observed that a large portion of this exercise is devoted to specific questions about the quality care provided by The National Health Service in members' districts. A question on the terrorists threats to the UK will invariably be followed by a passionate query from a Member asking the PM if he's aware of nurses being re-assigned at a hospital in Sheffield. The PM seems to spend as much time on parochial health care issues as on national security.

The politics of deciding who gets what in the way of medical treatment doubtlessly will push aside traditional affairs of state. Every member of Congress will need to hire several staff members just to manage constituents' complaints about their care. Elections will be won and lost on the basis of who can get the most in the way of health care for their districts.

We will become the Gulliver of nations, a great power whose leaders are tied up in strings as they spend much of their time addressing the medical complaints, valid and imagined, of their electorate.

We *will* become the Gulliver of nations. And it will not just be due to healthcare. The more our Federal government becomes so deeply involved in the regulation of anything and everything (education, the environment, banking, retirement, fishing, car manufacturing....etc), the more we tie ourselves down. The more the Liliputians UN bureaucrats will take advantage of us. The more we will make ourselves irrelevant.

Truffle Oil, Tunafish, and Obama

Instapundit links to one of his favorite blogs, Al Dente (Where "Serious gastronomy meets culinary calamity"), discussing the angst of being duped by the marketing of truffle oil and allegedly Italian tunafish.

In his summary the question is asked: "Have you been duped by product labeling lately? I'd love to hear about it."

I guess my only response to this would be:

Sure, its not food, but if Obama can worm his way into every aspect of my life (America's Most Wanted, College Basketball, NFL) I can at least use it as a vehicle to comment on his duping America via product labeling.....

Somebody call the Federal Trade Commission.

Worst. Decade. Ever.

"Any time Dennis Kucinich is the voice of reason, you know you are really screwed..."




I vote for seeing more Al Gore impressions by Nick Gillespie

[Hat tip: Instapundit]

MSM: Move Along..Nothing to See Here!

So...what are the biggest news stories of the weekend according to the nation's leading media outlets?

A missing graduate student, dirty water, and nicer treatment for terrorist detainees. And...if you look a little closer...you might notice the acknowledgment that "thousands" of people marched on the National Mall to protest many items being pushed by the Obama Administration.

While the CNN article makes absolutely no mention of crowd size, it has been estimated by some that it could approach 2 million people. That may seem high, but even if the crowd surpassed 1 million, it could arguably be the largest crowd ever to assemble on the National Mall. In fact it would be higher than the crowd for President Obama's Inauguration.

Even if it were simply close to being the largest ever, one would think that might merit the leading headline on a slow news Saturday. Alas no, but lets take a look at what was on the major news webpages this evening....













Not a whole loota Tea Party in there is there? At least the WaPo put a Tea Party slideshow up there.

But I suppose we should not be at all surprised that these news tools organs would provide aid and comfort to the Administration.

Cold Front in Hades

It is a little colder in Hell today...though probably not frozen over.

Bill Maher has apologized to John McCain:

Remember during the campaign when John McCain attacked Obama for acting like a celebrity and we all laughed at the grumpy old shellshocked fool? Well, it turns out he was right. Sorry, senator. I'm sending a nice gift basket of high-fiber muffins your way.

The rest of the column isn't all that good, but there does seem to be a large majority in this country that would like the President to get the heck out of our televisions.

Someone needs to remind President Obama that he was a mid-season replacement show last January, the television season is now over, and he should take a break until September or October.....

A Picture is Worth 1000 Words...

...or none at all.

People are making some hay about this photo of First Lady Michelle Obama



Now, as much as I like to bash her for her previously stated dislike for her lot in a wonderful life, and wearing expensive shoes to feed the homeless, and $100/lb steak at the White House...I can't bash her for this photograph.

Photos are but an instant in time. Sure they can reflect the emotion of a person, but they can just as easily be misleading. Emotions take moments, even seconds to express. Thus taking a sliver of that expression as it evolves can produce a snapshot of something entirely different.

Lets take a case in point... Do we really think that President Bush looks like this?







Of course not...these were but slivers in time during an emotional expression. But hey, the left sure did love to use them to advance their case that he was a dunce and a moron.

Now was the First Lady scowling at Carla Bruni...maybe...maybe not. We just don't know. (In fact if you ask me, based on the angles, I would say she is looking *behind* Bruni)

My ultimate point is, there will be plenty of fodder for which to criticize the hypocritical First Lady, but lets not start the meme that an alleged scowl proves that she is a mean bitch. To do so would be no better than how the left treated Bush....and we need to remind ourselves that we are better than them....

UPDATE: Thanks again to Instapundit for the Instalanche! I have also fixed the bad picture. One drawback to a job where you can't read 'blogspot' sites or access Blogger...I didn't know it was an issue until I got home tonight. For the same reason, I haven't read the comments yet....

UPDATE II: Well I certainly am getting beat up in the comments... But if you think I am soft on Obama, look around the rest of the blog and decide for yourself.

In the end, I don't necessarily disagree that she might be a shrew, or a cold-hearted bitch, or whatever else. But I was simply stating that based on my photographic experience, this picture doesn't "prove" any of that, no more than Bush's funny faces "proved" he was allegedly an idiot. If you want to spotlight the arrogance of the First Lady, use her words against her. There are certainly plenty of those to go around.

But ultimately I think there are plenty of bigger issues to go after besides discerning the temperament of the First Lady.

UPDATE III: Now almost 2 years since I published this post, I noticed that the Yahoo News image of Mrs Obama and Carla Bruni that I originally used was blank. A search of Yanhoo News images for "Obama + Bruni" now gets ZERO his. So it appears that someone put that official image down the memory hole. Thank goodness for the internet....there are plenty of other copies out there....

The Rise of Obamany Hall

The other day I heard someone on the radio make a correlation between the actions of the infamous Tammany Hall, and those of the new Obama administration.

Tammany Hall was described as "an engine for graft and political corruption". With the patronage flowing freely to Democratic Party enclaves such as the UAW, SEIU, and ACORN, one can certainly see the similarities.

George Will makes a key observation..."The administration's central activity -- the political allocation of wealth and opportunity -- is not merely susceptible to corruption, it is corruption."

Decades from now political science students may well study the ascendancy of the most powerful political machine ever know to this country.

And we were here to see it's emergence.

Say hello to Obamany Hall. I call dibs on the name....

Protests - Pictures of Contrast

Some interesting pictures out there today of both 'Tea Party' protests and 'A New Way Forward' protests.

First a Tea Party in Pittsburgh (via Instapundit):



Second, a 'New Way Forward' protest in Boulder, Co:



Notice any difference?

Just to make sure I am not cherry picking photos to fit my meme, lets try that again....this time, same city!

Tea Party protest, Chicago:



Pro-Bigger Govt protest, Chicago:



Hmm...still looks the same to me. Let's see which ones get more media coverage. Perhaps the scales will tip this weekend on that front.

Lastly, no post about political rallies is complete without looking at some of the great signs that people make and carry around.

Anti-Govt solution:



Pro-Govt solution:



OK, perhaps I am biased , but even despite the lack of punctuation, I have to give it to the Anti-Govt solution guy. But you do have to give that lefty protester some credit...he wants to Nationalize *and* Decentralize the banks at the same time. I might be willing to let him have his way, just to see how they would pull that off...

Thoroughly Confused

OK. I am thoroughly confused....

A liberal group backed by unions release a TV ad that attempts to portray Rush Limbaugh as the leader of the GOP....



And what do they want Americans to do about this alleged outrage?? They want you to "Call the Republican Leadership, and 'Just Say No' to the politics of Rush Limbaugh"

Uhhhh...what? Wait, didn't you just spend the first half of your ad convincing me that Rush *was* the Republican leadership??

Hmmm...perhaps it is they who are thoroughly confused....

How Stupid Do They Think We Are?

Another good speech worth watching from CPAC 2009 is that by Newt Gingrich.

Label this one as "How Stupid Do They Think We Are?"



Favorite line:
"We are not going to raise taxes on anyone under $250,000 a year....unless you use electricity. We are not going to raise taxes on anyone under $250,000 a year....unless you buy gasoline. We are not going to raise taxes on anyone under $250,000 a year....unless you use heating oil. We are not going to raise taxes on anyone under $250,000 a year....unless you use natural gas.......I actually believe that the group that will be the least taxed under the new plan will be the Amish of central Pennsylvania..."

Rush's CPAC Speech

For those of you who may not have seen it, Rush limbaugh's speech to CPAC on Saturday night can be seen in its entirety (though segmented) over at Hot Air:

Video: Limbaugh brings down the house at CPAC

First segment:


Beyond his speech, one of the best items comes at the very beginning of segment 1, where anonymous CNN announcer-babe says "We go to Washington right now, to listen to this guy, radio host, conservative, Rush Limbaugh. Apparently he is now kind-of commandeering, leading the Republican Party..."

This only shows how insulated the MSM is within the liberal spin bubble, which is trying to make Limbaugh a major target,and poster boy of the GOP. First, if Rush had wanted to use his great public appeal and 'commandeer' the GOP, he would have done it by now. Second....what else would we expect a major outspoken, conservative figure to be doing? How is a speech, or even his outspokeness on the new administration an indication of him allegedly taking over the GOP?

Just another indicator at how shallow today's 'news' organizations are that weak hyperbole can pass as analysis....

Census Subterfuge?

OK, I am not much of a conspiracy theorist myself, but I have this theory running through my head that I cannot shake....

Was Judd Gregg selected for Commerce simply as a covering action to allow the Obama Administration to move administration of the 2010 Census into the White House, and then hand it over to friends like ACORN?

Food for thought:

- Feb 3: Judd Gregg introduced as nominee for Commerce Secretary
- Feb 3/4: Black & Latino groups "express concern" over his ability to conduct "a thorough and fair counting of all Americans" and "most accurate possible count of the nation’s population"
- Feb 5: Obama Administration moves administration of the 2010 Census out of Commerce, and into the White House.
- Feb?: President Obama signs a "Stimulus" bill which will most likely include $4.2 billion for a "Community Development Fund" to conduct "neighborhood stabilization activities", and $1 billion for the 2010 Census

Now what I ask you is the best way to start off a 'neighborhood stabilization'? Why by determining a baseline, of course. And what better way to accomplish that than with the 2010 Census!

Flush with $4.2 billion, groups like ACORN could do that with no problem, right? Just hire the millions of unemployed (since the stimulus will not have created other new jobs for them) and conduct the Census.

Removing tongue from cheek, I find the sequence of events above awfully convenient. There is no real logical reason for a Democratic President to hold onto a Republican nominee in the face of stiff opposition from his base...unless he had something to gain from it.

Either the Obama administration's vetting of Gregg failed to notice (a real possibility, as already demonstrated) the fact that he tried to eliminate the Commerce Department, and has been a target of Dem constituencies concerning the conduct of the last Census...or they knew all about these weaknesses (a greater possibility due to Dem opposition research) and worked in concert with those aforementioned constituencies to manufacture a "concern" that would give them the political cover to move the Census to the White House to be run by god-knows-who....

But then again I could just be paranoid....

Video Stimuli

Feeling a weight of dread in these dark hours, before our political betters impose upon our children and grand-children unending seas of debt?

Well, sit up straight, and watch this inspring video of free-thinker and a small-minded blowhard.



Thanks to Jack Dunphy, guest posting over at Paterico's, for this great find. I am off to youtube to find more similar inspiration.

Over the past two weeks, I have re-read Animal Farm, and am working my way through the second half of Atlas Shrugged. I think my next re-read will be Friedman's Free to Choose...

King Julian on the Stimulus

I was watching our newly arrived copy of Madagascar 2 (Amazon Prime rocks!), and I saw a wonderful re-enactment of President Obama's op-ed. How, you ask, is that possible? Well, first lets go to today's lecture from the anointed one (i.e. op-ed from the President):

"What Americans expect from Washington is action that matches the urgency they feel in their daily lives -- action that's swift, bold and wise enough for us to climb out of this crisis."

Unfortunately for the President, if we are to believe the latest polls Americans have yet to see "action that matches the urgency they feel in their daily lives".

The President goes on to list all the liberal paeans about how the "Stimulus" will save life as we know it, prefacing each with "Now is the time to..." He then begins his conclusion with "These are the actions Americans expect us to take without delay."

So how does this relate to a cute animated film?

Well towards the end of the film, King Julian (a prancing, preening lemur with delusions of his own grandeur) proposes to thirsty animals at a dried up water hole that they should sacrifice someone into the nearby volcano to appease the 'gods' and get water. (Good video here) This approach reminds me of what President Obama proposes in his op-ed, as he asks us to sacrifice our money to appease the liberal gods and magically get back to prosperity. The best part comes after the animals agree to the plan, and King Julian says, "Hurry up...before we all come to our senses!"



Indeed. In fact that seems to perfectly complement President Obama's statements:

What Americans expect from Washington is action that matches the urgency they feel in their daily lives -- action that's swift, bold and wise enough for us to climb out of this crisis. These are the actions Americans expect us to take without delay. So let's hurry up before we all come to our senses!

First They Came For the Executives...

Today Obama struck a blow for America's self esteem, and punished work that results in failure:

"President Barack Obama took on bailed-out Wall Street firms on Wednesday, setting a $500,000 annual cap on pay for top executives at companies receiving taxpayer funds and tapping popular anger over financial sector excesses."

Now, of all the ideas that have rolled out in the last 2 weeks, this is certainly not the most objectionable. But are there limits to this idea?

"This is America, we don't disparage wealth. ... What gets people upset, and rightfully so, is executives being rewarded for failure. Especially when those rewards are subsidized by U.S. taxpayers," he said.

If this is the road that Obama wants to go down, the real question needs to be...how far is he prepared to go??

Will he be prepared to call for a limit on the salaries of professional athletes? Much of their exorbitant paychecks are due to ticket sales. Tickets to seats in many stadiums around the country that are subsidized by taxpayer funding. If they had to play in stadiums actually affordable to their team's owner's wallets, there would be no glut of money to pay them millions. New, shiny, tax-payer funded stadia/arena permit the owners to shower manna upon these athletes. And by definition, most of these players are failures, but still accept millions without shame. Thus I would expect Obama to call on the NFL, NBA and MLB to cap their salaries...or else they could feel some pain...Janet Reno style!

Better yet, and perhaps more relevant to this whole bailout/stimulus, will Obama call for a cap on salaries of actors/actresses/executives who get paid millions by studios who take advantage of a possible Stimulus tax breaks for movie project flops? If Hollywood is to benefit directly from the 'stimulating' generosity of future generations, should it not be treated like the executives of bailout slurping companies?? It would be painful to see our favorite starlets wandering around the Cannes and Sundance festivals asking..."Who is John Galt?"

Of course I will not hold my breath. What I am really waiting for is the arrival of the Equalization of Opportunity Act, soon to emerge from inner sanctum of the Speaker of the House...

(Hat Tip: Instapundit)

Quarterly Exxon Obscene Profit Reality Check

People! Pay attention! We have covered this topic before....

Yes...Exxon made a profit of $45 billion. Feign shock/disgust/outrage at the "obscene" profits if you want. But know this...your rage is aimed in the wrong direction.

While Exxon was earning a $45 billion profit out of $477 billion of revenue...governments around the world were squeezing a profit of $116 billion out of that same revenue.

Yes, that is right. According to the numbers, Exxon paid $116 billion is total taxes in 2008. That is a profit 2.5x the one that Exxon is supposedly guilty of earning.

So if you think we need a 'Windfall Profit Tax" when it comes to oil profits, perhaps we should levy it on government, because no one made a bigger windfall than them.....

Pork-a-palooza!

Yes, it is the festival of Pork-a-palooza here in Barack-a-topia....





Congrats America...like I've said before...we get what we vote for....

Guantanamo Park

Heh!



(Hat Tip: Dr. Sanity & Larwyn)

Nice Political Minority You Got There....

...I would hate for anything (worse) to happen to it.

Jennifer Rubin in today's WSJ has a great look at the general lack of graciousness on the part of the new President. Strange given that he was supposed to levitate above partisan rancor and bring healing to the land.

At a White House meeting he throws an elbow (”I won“) and chides them for supposedly following the dictates of radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh. (The Beltway Republicans are not above the latter, by the way, but their objections to the “stimulus” plan are on sound policy grounds.) Anyone who gets in his way is just opposed to “change.”

Now why this surprises anyone is news to me. Remember, when Democrats stress that they are trying to accomplish something in a bi-partisan fashion, it really means that they want Republicans to support whatever the Democrats propose. You know as opposed to the concept of compromise....

And this is exactly what President Obama is trying to do.... strong arming the GOP into getting on board the O-train, if they know what is good for them. A direct reality check for the GOP as to whom is in charge. "If you want to get along and be part of the bi-partisan utopia, you should listen to me, not that Limbaugh fellow. Or else you could find the next few years pretty lonely, and you wouldn't want that would you?"

The big irony here is that for as long as I can remember, Rush Limbaugh has been pleading with Republicans in Washington to stop trying to get the Democrats and Press to like them, because it will never happen. And he was imploring this (unsuccessfully) in years when the GOP controlled the political apparatus.

Unfortunately, he may need to double his efforts with that message, as it looks like peer pressure to be popular on the Congressional playground is being ratcheted up by the new cool kid who just moved into town...

We Get What We Vote For - Part V

America, if you want to see what you have voted for, go here:


READTHESTIMULUS.ORG

Help them parse out the pork and largesse that is going to be shoved down your throat...

UPDATE: A quick experiment...I ran the text of the 'Stimulus' through 'Wordle', and this was the output of the most used words in the proposed bill....