Arrived And Then Some

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com Spitzer and Edwards will walk away from their respective scandals the multi-millionaire celebrities they were when they walked in, with a fawning (for liberals) press telling us that (a) everybody does it, or (b) to err is human, or (c) we can't be so judgmental, or (d) [fill in the blank]. It's that we (or at least they) learned from The Big One ten years ago. Bill Clinton disgraced his office, lied, and encouraged or (possibly) arranged for others to lie. He also granted at least one pardon after the pardonee's former (but still friendly) wife forked over a few hundred thousand in "contributions." And what happened? Clinton's popularity went up, his spouse became a serious candidate for President, he's touted by the press as an elder statesman, his guy at DoJ who checked off on the pardon is about to become Attorney General, and of course Clinton himself lives a life of luxury and adulation. The world of perverse incentives that the Left labored so long to create has arrived.

Corruption? Yes, We Can!

clipped from hotair.com How serious has this scandal tarnished the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), one of the largest public-sector unions in the nation?  Badly enough to gain the notice of the New York Times.  Steven Greenhouse does a good job providing the background to the union connections in this scandal, and shows why the SEIU made sense as a deal-cutting go-between for Rod Blagojevich and Barack Obama: The federal criminal complaint filed against Mr. Blagojevich said his chief of staff, John Harris, had suggested to a service employees’ official that the union should help make the governor the head of Change to Win, the federation of seven unions that broke away from the A.F.L.-C.I.O. The complaint said Mr. Blagojevich was seeking a position that paid $250,000 to $300,000 a year. In exchange, the complaint strongly suggested, the service employees union and Change to Win would help persuade Mr. Blagojevich to name Valerie Jarrett, President-elect Barack Obama’s first choice,

See comment #3 for the title.

The Hawk Strikes Again

clipped from iowahawk.typepad.com CHICAGO - The ongoing corruption probe into Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich took a dramatic turn this evening, as federal agents working for US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald announced that they had seized the governor's eBay account. It is as yet unknown how the latest seizure will effect the outcome of the case. IOWAHAWK EXCLUSIVE! RUSH UPDATE! Leaked documents from latest sealed federal indictment (click to embiggen)

Parallel Universes

clipped from www.qando.net While the President-elect trots out his New New Deal, which smacks more of Soviet style planning than free market recovery, Communist China is taking an alternate course: CHINA may soon cut business tax as part of its efforts to prop up the slowing economy amid the global financial crisis, state media reported on Tuesday. As for the great public works that Obama plans, even his new budget chief knows it isn't going to do what Obama thinks it will do. When Peter Orszag ran the Congressional Budget Office, he had this to say about Obama-like programs: "Practically speaking, however, public works involve long start-up lags. Large-scale construction projects of any type require years of planning and preparation. Even those that are "on the shelf" generally cannot be undertaken quickly enough to provide timely stimulus to the economy.

I Was Wrong -- He Does Have Leadership Experience After All...

...of the Chicago Mafia.

clipped from gatewaypundit.blogspot.com Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, taking an oath next to Barack Obama pre-2008, allegedly said, "I want to make money" off the power to pick Obama's Senate successor. (NY Post) Rahm Emanuel said that he and Obama were top advisors to Blagojevich during his run for governor. The Roaring Republican reported: Ryan Lizza reported in the New Yorker that Obama received “his first high-level experience in a statewide campaign” while advising Blagojevich during his campaign for governor. Additionally Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s current Chief-of-Staff also was a top strategist for that campaign. From the report: He and Obama “participated in a small group that met weekly when Rod was running for governor,” Emanuel said. “We basically laid out the general election, Barack and I and these two.” A spokesman for Blagojevich confirmed Emanuel’s account... But, now Rahm Emanuel is singing a different tune and trying to distance himself from Hot Rod

Just Asking

clipped from dyn.politico.com The stinging criminal complaint against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and his chief of staff John Harris raises lots of questions for President-elect Barack Obama – questions he’ll have a chance to answer Thursday when he does his first news conference since Blagojevich was charged. Here are seven worth asking: 1 – “Did you communicate directly or indirectly with Blagojevich about picking your replacement in the U.S. Senate?” Obama issued a categorical statement Tuesday that he personally hadn’t spoken with Blagojevich about the seat — but seemed to correct himself in a way that suggested others around Obama might have. 2 – “Why didn’t you or someone on your team correct your close adviser David Axelrod when he said you had spoken to Blagojevich about picking your replacement?” 4 – “Did you or anyone close to you contact the FBI or U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald about Blagojevich’s alleged efforts to sell your Senate seat to the highest bidder?”

Blago Bussed

clipped from ace.mu.nu Obama's getting pretty good at denying any contact whatsoever with people known to be close associates.

Move along, nothing to see here...

The Sunnis Object

clipped from gatewaypundit.blogspot.com Charles Krauthammer celebrated this historical pact today at the Washington Post: The barbarism in Mumbai and the economic crisis at home have largely overshadowed an otherwise singular event: the ratification of military and strategic cooperation agreements between Iraq and the United States. They must not pass unnoted. They were certainly noted by Iran, which fought fiercely to undermine the agreements. For the United States, this represents the single most important geopolitical advance in the region since Henry Kissinger turned Egypt from a Soviet client into an American ally. The only significant opposition bloc was the Sadrists, a mere 30 seats out of 275. The ostensibly pro-Iranian religious Shiite parties resisted Tehran's pressure and championed the agreement. As did the Kurds. The Sunnis put up the greatest fight. But their concern was that America would be withdrawing too soon, leaving them subject to overbearing and perhaps even vengeful Shiite dominance.

To what Obambi will almost certainly do next.

NerObama

clipped from hotair.com Now, with the federal government deep in debt, unwilling to address an entitlement disaster, and throwing hundreds of billions of dollars at private enterprises in a vain attempt to rescue them from their own bad management and labor practices, Obama wants to create a new WPA to renew American infrastructure not because it’s needed as much as Obama needs to ensure his re-election. None of this comes as a great shock, though.  While Obama has given some indications that he doesn’t intend a massive shift to the Left on defense and foreign policy, his economic plans have always favored statism, class warfare, and a striking ignorance of history and reality.  Recreating the WPA and proposing even more massive spending programs in the face of our precarious financial condition and debt load finds its equivalent only perhaps in the apocryphal fiddling of Nero while Rome burned.

You Guys Should Be Ashamed

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com

Really?

OZero OAccountability

clipped from gatewaypundit.blogspot.com Yid With Lid reported that Susan Rice is one those responsible for letting Osama Bin Laden get away in the 1990's. Susan Rice in Sudan. Rice bungled a deal with Sudan to capture terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden. (Sudan Net) On Monday, Barack Obama is expected to announce that he has chosen the same Susan Rice as his UN Ambassador and that the position will be elevated to a Cabinet Level job. Here's more on the country's next UN Ambassador: She deserves a hefty portion of blame for the fact that Osama bin Laden wasn't neutralized during the 1990s. "The FBI, in 1996 and 1997, had their efforts to look at terrorism data and deal with the bin Laden issue overruled every single time by the State Department, by Susan Rice and her cronies, who were hell-bent on destroying the Sudan," one-time Clinton diplomatic troubleshooter Mansoor Ijaz told radio host Sean Hannity in 2002.

Submission In Mumbai

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com Corroborating the doctors' claims about torture was the information that the Intelligence Bureau had about the terror plan. "During his interrogation, Ajmal Kamal said they were specifically asked to target the foreigners, especially the Israelis," an IB source said. Phillips comments: The atrocities demonstrated with crystal clarity what the Islamist war is all about - and the western commentariat didn't understand because it simply refuses to acknowledge, even now, what that war actually is. It does not arise from particular grievances. It is not rooted in "despair" over Palestine. It is not a reaction to the war in Iraq. It is a war waged in the name of Islam against America, Britain, Hindus, Jews and all who refuse to submit to Islamic conquest.

All You Need To Know Right There

clipped from www.qando.net Austan Goolsbee is slated to become Barack Obama's chief of staff at the Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Mr. Goolsbee is a respected economist, but in this particular situation, may not be the best choice, considering his views on the lending practices that got us into this mess. Thus, Goolsbee was delighted that political and regulatory tools were being used to get those uncredit worthy into new homes. The private sector was not thinking far enough ahead, and that's what the government needed to get them to do, Goolsbee said. OK. Well, we did that. How'd that work out for us? And by "us", I mean, all of us who aren't Austan Goolsbee. for him, it appears to have worked out fine. His reward for advocating the policies that led us into this mess appears to be increased power and responsibility. That's all you need to know about how government works right there.

The Shock Never Ends

clipped from volokh.com Obama Chief of Staff Hopes to Exploit the Economic Crisis to Expand the Growth of Government: In earlier posts (e.g. - here and here) I have emphasized the risk that the combination of economic crisis and unified Democratic control of Congress and the White House would lead to a vast expansion of government. It looks like key Obama advisers and congressional Democrats are thinking along the same lines. As Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel puts it, the crisis is "an opportunity to do things you could not do before . . . You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." The WSJ article from which the quote comes makes clear that the "things" Emanuel has in mind are government policies that "pick winners" by subsidizing particular industries on a massive scale - as Congress is already doing with the finance industry, auto industry and others (HT: David Boaz). an enormous transfer of resources from taxpayers and wealth-producing industries to interest groups with political leverage.

Winners

clipped from pajamasmedia.com The bottom line is it may take a generation to determine what sort of failure or success there was in Iraq. Not even. The war was a massive net gain for the U.S. 1. We now have the first Arab democracy and the first Arab free press, which show the rest of the region what’s possible if you’re willing to fight and change your hidebound way of doing things. 2. The Shi’ites now govern a country, which gives hope to the oppressed Shi’ites all over the region and therefore alleviates simmering sectarian tensions. 3. Al Qaeda is totally discredited. 4. We’ve created a de facto Sunni Arab alliance against Iran. 5. The U.S. is much more involved and influential now than it was under Clinton. 6. The U.S. and its military have utterly destroyed our image in the middle east as paper tigers that can’t take casualties. 7. The U.S. military is now the most combat-hardened force on the planet, able to fight both conventional wars and asymmetrical wars. This experience will sustain us for decades.

RTWT.

And of course since most people aren't capable of abstract thought they also don't stop to consider what the likely outcomes were if we continued to let the Oil For Food scandal destroy the sanctions regime against Iraq. There were such sunny options as another Iran-Iraq war or a WMD armed Iran-Iraq alliance against Israel among others...

A Most Unhappy Man

clipped from hotair.com I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated governments in the civilized world. No longer a government by free opinion, no longer a government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men. - Woodrow Wilson (shortly after signing the Federal Reserve Act into law)

All OTangled Up In Clinton

clipped from pajamasmedia.com Late in Clinton’s tenure, the White House put forth a document celebrating “Historic Economic Growth” during the administration and pointing to the policy accomplishments it deemed responsible for this growth. Among the achievements on Clinton’s list were “Modernizing for the New Economy through Technology and Consensus Deregulation.” That’s right, a Clinton White House document credited part of the administration’s success to that now dreaded d-word, deregulation. Everything in those passages is true. All that’s missing is credit to the GOP-controlled Congress elected in 1994 for passing most of the policies that led to the prosperity. But the Clinton administration, whatever its personal and policy flaws, should indeed be praised for signing and advocating this deregulation. These bipartisan financial policies, however, were the very same policies that Obama, running mate Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.) and other Democrats attacked during the campaign.

I Don't Think So

clipped from pajamasmedia.com I am convinced that someone possessing a hard science degree from Harvard or our other elite academic institution is worthy of respect. They are often the very best in the entire world. But this is not necessarily true of those who acquired a softer credential from the very same universities! These latter individuals are usually idiots. Those who are truly gifted will be the exception to the rule. This is why I ridicule the naive people who made a big deal about Barack Obama’s Harvard Law degree. Let’s not forget that it is the graduates from our so-called best universities, like Frank and Rains, who are mostly responsible for our current economic crisis. They are not only politically correct—but also lacking in wisdom and plain old common sense. By all rights, anyone who obtained a liberal arts degree form a Ivy League school should perhaps be deeply ashamed. We may even have the moral right to question their integrity. Am I exaggerating? I don’t think so.

They Were Wrong

clipped from hnn.us Subprime mortgages are a problem but they are not the cause of the collapse. The collapse was caused by an OPEC generated precipitous rise in oil prices. Subprime mortgage buyers could no longer pay their mortgages because too much of their pay check had to go to pay for gasoline. Yes, I know, gas prices have since declined but not before Humpty Dumpty, the American consumer, was broken. All subprime loans did was to encourage poor people to join the national spending spree. Indeed, when Oil rich nations decided to squeeze the American consumer by not only raising oil prices but also by ending or lowering their investment in the American financial markets, they assumed that there were enough new consumers in Asia to replace the American ones. In other word, they assumed that the collapse of the US economy would not lead to the collapse of the global economy, most especially, the Asian one. They were wrong.

Two Legs Good?

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com Given all that, are we now suddenly—in 1984-fashion—around late January either to be told all that was not quite so, or will we simply hear no more about how these Bush legacies have ruined America—or what exactly is the party line to be? There is still such a thing, after all, as Google. The point is that somewhere around early to mid-2007 ABC, NBC, CBS, MSNBC, CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post, NPR, Newsweek, Time, etc. chose to become—in the manner that they selected, emphasized, and presented their news stories—a quasi-official Obama media, or at least a quasi-official what-they-thought-Obama-was news media. Chris Matthews' asinine statement about his investment in the success of the Obama administration was merely a crude summation of the creed of the more sober and judicious. I don't really think they can now pull off an Animal-Farm-like 'two-legs were bad', 'now two-legs good' complete turn-about just because they've taken over the manor.

Oh The Horrors!

clipped from hotair.com According to the New York Slimes it’s ok for obama, to support throwing a newborn human survivor of a botched abortion into a dark storeroom to die of dehydration and exposure BUT - kill and dress a turkey.??.. OH THE HORRORS.. The NYT is nothing but a bunch of hysterical wusses. Maybe they ought to ask obama about what happened when his buddy Odinga lost the election.. You know, the machete murders, the buring of a bunch of refugees in a church??? Oh, wait a dang minute.. I forgot, he is their chosen messiah and not Gov. Palin plus those were just political opponents of his friend, not TURKEYS.. Gee am I stupid or what??

Der Fuehrer Heute

clipped from pajamasmedia.com Obama should surely now release the full details of his contractual relationship with the Bertelsmann Corporation. After all, if one is to judge by his recent tax returns, even as president, he will be paid far more by Bertelsmann than by the American taxpayers. It might be considered irrelevant today that Bertelsmann massively collaborated with the Nazi regime during World War II. The Obama team and the Mohns would undoubtedly say that it is scandalous to suggest that the Mohns were using their millions to influence the American presidency or that Obama could possibly be corrupted. But as a reputed former professor of constitutional law, Obama will surely recall the famous words of James Madison in the Federalist Papers: “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.” The president-elect’s most fervent followers may well be convinced that he is divine. But his financial relationship to Bertelsmann proves, after all, that he is only human.

Those who cannot learn from history...

What. A. Surprise.

clipped from armsandthelaw.com An interesting piece on changes to police tactics. The traditional response was bring up the SWAT team, plan it out carefully, then go in. As the matter was better understood, this switched to whoever gets there first goes in immediately -- seconds passing means people dying. To my mind, this is a powerful argument for allowing teachers to be armed. The article ends: "The other statistic that emerged from a study of active killers is that they almost exclusively seek out "gun free" zones for their attacks. In most states, concealed handguns are prohibited at schools and on college campuses even for those with permits. Many malls and workplaces also place signs at their entrances prohibiting firearms on the premises. Now tacticians believe the signs themselves may be an invitation to the active killers. As soon as they're confronted by any armed resistance, the shooters typically turn the gun on themselves."

The Microcosm

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com Bob Cunningham explains how Detroit's Big Three fit in: The real story is the frightening extent to which Detroit is just the New Deal U.S. in microcosm...the Big 3 became essentially private versions of the middle class welfare state...social agencies for providing non-market validated income, health and retirement benefits, with a sideline of making cars....and now the model is unsustainable. In part it is because of the burden of the retired UAW workforce, which now vastly outnumbers the actual working members. As of 2007, the UAW represented 180,681 members at Chrysler, Ford and General Motors; it also represented 419,621 retired members and 120,723 surviving spouses. This is not dissimilar to Social Security and Medicare for the U.S. economy as a whole. Both of these entitlement programs are unfunded liabilities of the U.S. government, politically, if not legally, and, on a current basis, consume almost 50% of the $3 trillion federal budget.

Today's Cloward-Piven Update

clipped from pajamasmedia.com We can debate whether the policies of Frank, Dodd, Pelosi, Reid et al. accelerated, enhanced, exacerbated or caused the certainty of failures (Shumer’s actions related to Indymac and beyond as Exhibit A). However, it cannot be seriously debated that it is in the interests of those who thrive on devouring the bloated carcass of an expanding bureaucracy…alternately fatting the beast and gluttonizing upon it…and that “nationalizing” banking and finance, manufacturing, energy, travel, print and airwaves communications, savings, health care, insurance, …would pretty much “tear down the system” of capitalism. Voila! On Ayers, on Dohrn, on Alinsky, Klonsky, Chomsky and Comet. Rudolph the Red knows reign, dear. Whereupon, we come to Humpty Dumpty’s wall of bureaucratic red tape would put all the king’s horses and all the king’s men into a level of power heretofore not seen since we left the shores across the pond in the 1700’s. We know how that ends each time history has witnessed it…

O's Not The Source

clipped from www.qando.net Sweetness and Light has an interesting post up. Among many of the highlighted sentences are these: A moratorium on foreclosures and evictions. Reset mortgages so payments are affordable. No bail outs for banks. Extend unemployment compensation, increase payments and eligibility. Increase food stamps, WIC, children's health insurance, and low income energy assistance. [...] Enact massive public works job creation to make existing buildings energy efficient, construct new schools, hospitals, affordable housing, mass transit and bridges. Priority to areas hurt by loss of manufacturing, loss of family farms and highest unemployment areas including the Katrina-devastated Gulf Coast. Ratify Kyoto Treaty and other climate change agreements. Enforce nuclear non-proliferation, work to abolish nuclear weapons. Cut Pentagon spending in half, close down US bases around the world. The incoming Obama Administration's wish list? Well, yes, but that's not the source.

Etc, etc...

The source would be CPUSA of course...

Shocking I know.

OChange You Can't Believe In

clipped from www.bloomberg.com Nov. 11 (Bloomberg) -- It's hard to believe Barack Obama would even think of calling this change. Take a good look at some of the 17 people our nation's president-elect chose last week for his Transition Economic Advisory Board. And then try saying with a straight face that these are the leaders who should be advising him on how to navigate through the worst financial crisis in modern history. First, there's former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. Not only was he chairman of Citigroup Inc.'s executive committee when the bank pushed bogus analyst research, helped Enron Corp. cook its books, and got caught baking its own. He was a director from 2000 to 2006 at Ford Motor Co., which also committed accounting fouls and now is begging Uncle Sam for Citigroup- style bailout cash. Mulcahy and Parsons also once were directors at Fannie Mae when that company was breaking accounting rules. So was another member of Obama's new economic board, former Commerce Secretary William Daley.

And He Smiled And Waved A Lot

clipped from patdollard.com Something of historic proportions is happening. I can sense it because I know how it feels, smells, what it looks like, and how people react to it. Yes, a perfect storm may be brewing, but there is something happening within our country that has been evolving for about ten - fifteen years. The pace has dramatically quickened in the past two. We demand and then codify into law the requirement that our banks make massive loans to people we know they can never pay back? Why? We learn just days ago that the Federal Reserve, which has little or no real oversight by anyone, has “loaned” two trillion dollars (that is $2,000,000,000,000) over the past few months, but will not tell us to whom or why or disclose the terms. And I thought I would never be able to experience what the ordinary, moral German felt in the mid-1930s. In those times, the savior was a former smooth-talking rabble-rouser from the streets, about whom the average German knew next to nothing. And he smiled and waved a lot.

Indistinguishable

clipped from littlegreenfootballs.com Nazism and Facism are left-wing ideology. Take the racism out of the equation, and a regular solial-democrat platform is indistinguishable from a FACIST platform. Heath care, entitlements for veterans, eugenics, care of the elderly, etc. Fascim promotes ACTION. Violence if its needed. And it usually is. Or like, getting involved socially. Getting in people's face, like somebody said not too long ago. The "reasonable limits on free speech, assembly" etc came after the Reichtach fire. Hitler did not seize power and make this up. He merely invoqued article 48 (?) of an illiberal constitution that allowed for the government to so this stuff in case of crisis. All of it legal. So, to answer the question: Facism is Socialism that substitute nationalism for class warfare. Another take on it is to substitute race for class. Like Reverend Wright. (Did you really think Jesus came up with this stuff?)

And, no, racism hasn't been taken out of the equation...

OFaithful Trinity

clipped from proteinwisdom.com “One of the churches that I became involved in was Trinity United Church of Christ,” Obama said in the interview. “And the pastor there, Jeremiah Wright, became a good friend. So I joined that church and committed myself to Christ in that church.” Obama began attending the church in 1988 and formally joined Trinity in 1992. Falsani asked, “Do you still attend Trinity?” Obama answered, “Yep. Every week. 11 o’clock service. Ever been there? Good service. I actually wrote a book called ‘Dreams from My Father,’ it’s kind of a meditation on race. There’s a whole chapter on the church in that, and my first visits to Trinity.” That is in direct contradiction to what he has said throughout this campaign year.

O What A Surprise

clipped from www.qando.net Via Scott at Flopping Aces this interesting find which calls into question a couple of existing myths about pre-invasion Iraq: Charles "Sam" Faddis, who led a CIA team into northern Iraq following the 9/11 attacks, says the Pentagon's "endless planning and delays" foiled a chance to wipe out a band of al Qaeda leaders who were fleeing American bombs in Afghanistan. Faddis says the delays, beginning in 2002, also facilitated the escape of some "key" al Qaeda figures, including terrorist scientists who were working on chemical and biological weapons. "Some died, some are still on the run," Faddis said in a telephone interview Tuesday, following his appearance on NPR's Diane Rehm Show to promote a new book, Operation Hotel California: The Clandestine War Inside Iraq. "The site was physically destroyed ... but certainly the research wasn't destroyed." Naturally, this starts trickling out now.

Watch For The OReplay

clipped from taxprof.typepad.com

Family Friends

clipped from hotair.com Via Ace. The bad news? Obama was lying to us when he dismissed Ayers at the debate as merely “a guy who lives in my neighborhood.” The good news? We already knew that, thanks to Axelrod and Mayor Daley. Anyway, belated confirmation. “We had served together on the board of a foundation, knew one another as neighbors and family friends, held an initial fund-raiser at my house, where I’d made a small donation to his earliest political campaign,” he writes.

The Parallel Universe

clipped from hotair.com So the Vietnam War veteran who was tortured by Marxists lost the election, but the young charismatic speaker who was mentored by Marxists now sits in the oval office. rob verdi on November 13, 2008 at 9:12 PM welcome to the dreaded parallel universe!

Nope

clipped from pajamasmedia.com “One hopes that there is some core clique in the Democrat Establishment that actually has enough common sense to care about the future of their children.” - Mongoose Um .. nope. The horse of common sense left the barn somewhere between 10 and 30 years ago. It takes “true believers” to vote for a guy with less than two years Senate experience, NO accomplishments, solid Marxist/Socialist connections, the son of foreign national, a family Muslim background, and an Arabic middle name, seven years removed from 9/11. There is NO escaping responsibility for this least election vote. Over half of voting Americans put their children’s lives and future into the hands of THAT one, the messianic BHO.

Yes, That Perestroika Has Worked So Well

clipped from en.rian.ru MOSCOW, November 7 (RIA Novosti) - Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has said that the Obama administration in the United States needs far-reaching 'perestroika' reforms to overcome the financial crisis and restore balance in the world. The term perestroika, meaning restructuring, was used by Gorbachev in the late 1980s to describe a series of reforms that abolished state planning in the Soviet Union. In an interview with Italy's La Stampa published on Friday, Gorbachev said President-elect Barack Obama needs to fundamentally change the misguided course followed by President George W. Bush over the past eight years. Gorbachev said that after transforming his country in the late 1980s, he had told the Americans that it was their turn to act, but that Washington, celebrating its Cold War victory, was not interested in "a new model of a society, where politics, economics and morals went hand in hand."