Friday, December 19, 2008

Sugarplum Gumdrops

santatestifies

WASHINGTON - Flanked by officials from the United Elf Toytinkerers union, SantaCorp CEO Kris Kringle today told the House Ways and Means Committee that without immediate government financial help, his firm would be forced to declare bankruptcy, lay off thousands of elves and reindeer, and potentially cancel its annual worldwide Christmas Eve toy delivery.

"These are grim economic times for everyone, but even more so for non-profit toy manufacturers in the Snow Belt," said Kringle. "Our accountants have indicated that we are on track to exhaust our reserves of cash and magical pixie fairydust by December 23. Oh deary me."

Kringle and UET union president Binky McGiggles presented a draft emergency bailout plan to the committee calling for US $18 trillion in federal grants, loan guarantees, and sugarplum gumdrops that they said would keep the company solvent through December 26.

Spectacular

clipped from pajamasmedia.com

JOHN TIERNEY:


Does being spectacularly wrong about a major issue in your field of expertise hurt your chances of becoming the presidential science advisor? Apparently not, judging by reports from DotEarth and ScienceInsider that Barack Obama will name John P. Holdren as his science advisor on Saturday.

Dr. Holdren, now a physicist at Harvard, was one of the experts in natural resources whom Paul Ehrlich enlisted in his famous bet against the economist Julian Simon during the “energy crisis” of the 1980s.

In 1980 Dr. Holdren helped select five metals — chrome, copper, nickel, tin and tungsten — and joined Dr. Ehrlich and Dr. Harte in betting $1,000 that those metals would be more expensive ten years later. They turned out to be wrong on all five metals, and had to pay up when the bet came due in 1990


Next: Paul Wolfowitz for head of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency.

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Just A Guy In My Neighborhood Under The Bus (Part 82364)

clipped from ace.mu.nu

One good thing for Republicans: Obama is a moronic liar. Clinton was a good liar (much to our annoyance). This cat is a retarded one. That will be helpful.

So why did he tell such a ridiculous lie? I have to imagine it was to head off the next round of questions. Like what exactly did Rahm Emanuel propose as a counter-offer for Blago's pay-for-play requests? How much did he entertain the idea of playing ball one more time? At what point, if any, did Emanuel say "This is illegal and improper and these discussions are now ended?"

Or did he continue trying to "work with" Blago?

I assume Emanuel wasn't offering money for the seat. (Ass-ume.) But did he offer to have Obama campaign for Blago? Fundraise for him?

You can just see the Obama pattern unfolding with the Senate seat fixing scandal.

1. I don't know him
2. I know him a little
3. I know him but I thought he'd gone to rehab
4. I'm giving a major speech condemning everything he stands for

Monday, December 15, 2008

Deja Failure

In his paper of 1985, Cardinal Ratzinger simply went the extra step, to tell us what that regime is. He reminds us that "Western Civ" created free markets, and not vice versa; and inevitably, that the Roman Catholic Church created Western Civ. Like every other component of a high civilization, the market economy is, in itself, a mixed blessing, therefore a dangerous idol.

All my adult life, it seems, I have been explaining to libertarians that this is the difference between us: that we're both in favour of free markets, but only one of us is also in favour of civilization. I am not a social liberal, like most of them, but rather an intense social conservative. Moreover, I hold that all civilizations remain "socially conservative" until such time as they begin to collapse: as true of Confucian China as of the Christian West.

The rebuilding we need begins with church and family.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

No, Sorry -- An F

The AG also does not address the existence of the alternative legislative
impeachment process, other than to say that it might take too long. The failure
to address this alternative other than in passing requires at least a full grade
level deduction. If a criminal or ethical taint were sufficient to constitute a
"disability," then there would be no need for a constitutional impeachment
provision in the Illinois Constitution, which gives the sole power of
impeachment to the House of Representatives, with trial in the Senate, presided
over by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. The AG again construes the
Constitution in such a way as to render one of its provisions
meaningless.

What is most shocking about the AG's papers is that I
expected so much more. Some case authority. Something other than strained
arguments based on the dictionary. Something more highbrow than quoting Barack
Obama and Harry Reid. The AG may end up winning this case, but not on the
strength of her papers. C-
And this woman was on Obambi's short list to replace him. [bad language deleted]

Out Of The Memory Hole

clipped from www.youtube.com

"Winning Glory"

So the safeguard against the AG's abuse of power is that the court will have the role of deciding? How can it be the court's role to make the final call about things that belong in the realm of impeachment? Why do constitutions put impeachment trials in legislatures? Because courts are ill-suited to such decision-making.
AND: Keep in mind that the legislative impeachment process is something under the control of Madigan's own father. The court asked her Madigan was asked "Do you know why your father has been appearing to be somewhat reticent on the -- (off mike)?" She told them to "ask him," which, the transcript notes, provoked laughter. Do you think that's funny?
The speculation is that the speaker is sitting back on this so Lisa can take the lead and get ownership on the issue," said one House member who favors impeachment but requested anonymity.
What a misguided notion of how to win glory!

Saturday, December 13, 2008

That's The Ticket ... Kah-razy

clipped from ace.mu.nu

As suspected, the AG's curious creation of a judicial power to remove an elected governor is a bit self-serving:

[Illinois AG] Lisa Madigan's father is Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan.

He's another big time ward boss in the Chicago Machine.

Kass says, "They don't want a Blogojevich impeachment hearing which would basically allow Blagojevich to talk about all of the deals they've done."


The Chicago Tribune spins this as Madigan just wanting "ownership" of the issue, not wanting the legislature to "steal her thunder" by doing the task they are constitutionally charged with doing and she is not.

I think Kass is right that there's a bit more to it than thunder and ownership.

Meanwhile, Jesse Jackson, Jr. joins in the media-Democratic narrative that Blago is just kah-razy, and so, I guess we're to infer, cannot possibly be representative of Chicago machine politics.

Something Missing

clipped from volokh.com

From the evening of Nov. 10 until yesterday, Blagojevich, Obama, and his transition team acted in ways that are consistent with a knowledge of Blagojevich’s bribery attempt and a rejection of that attempt. What doesn't fit easily with the timeline is Obama's statement yesterday.

It should be noted that it is not a crime to fail to report a bribery attempt. The federal misprision of felony statute would seem to make it a federal crime to fail to report a federal felony

But case law has conclusively determined that mere non-reporting is not enough. Active concealment or the acceptance of a benefit for concealing is required.

Yet, looking at this timeline of Blagogate, it seems quite possible that someone in the Obama Camp is either lying or at least not revealing what they know.

Something important is missing from this story. Let's hope that, whatever it is, the absent fact or explanation will allow the narrative to fit Obama's denial more naturally.

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Touch Your Nose

Roll Call scoops everyone with an interesting piece that suggests how Governor Blagojevich may have sounded out Barack Obama about his vacant Senate seat, as well as giving a candidate for identifying 'Adviser B':


Blagojevich has relied heavily on political advice from inside-the-Beltway strategists since taking over the statehouse.

In particular, political consultant William Knapp of Washington-based Squier Knapp Dunn Communications has worked closely with the Illinois governor.

Knapp’s partner, Anita Dunn, was a top adviser to Obama during the presidential campaign.

Knapp, who is a member of the governor’s small inner circle of advisers, helped develop the strategy that catapulted Blagojevich to become the first Democrat in 26 years elected Illinois governor.

In doing so, Knapp became Blagojevich’s highest-paid Washington consultant.

Did Blagojevich use Bill Knapp to reach out to the Obama campaign -- via Knapp's partner Anita Dunn

George Who?

I don’t see anyone making this point in the ‘Seatgate’ (Senate Seat for sale).


Advisor B obviously has the authority to represent Obama, and has the knowledge and ‘where with all’ to know how Obama operates and what Obama would ‘approve’ of.


For Advisor B to be presenting and representing the idea of a 501( c) (4) non profit and for him to have all of the knowledge on how they operate, Advisor B incriminates himself and Obama that ‘this has already been done before’.


I would assume a whole lot of 501 ( c) (4)’s that are tied to Obama and Michelle, and other Democrat Politicians are getting sanitized right now.  It is also interesting to point out who the MASTER of 501 ( c) (4)’s is, none other that George Soros, although many of the Arabs and muslim organizations have been getting pretty good at them to.


Advisor B may have revealed ‘the cards’ that Obama and Michelle are already holding in promised 501 ( c) (4)’s, the next step would be to find out ‘who’ set them up. 

The Real OFitzmas

clipped from minx.cc
27

 One scenario that I can imagine is Fitzgerald (or his people) warning the Obama camp that they were getting close to the quicksand in the swamp after hearing the 2-hour horse-trading marathon through the wire tap.

I have no doubt that this is exactly what happened.

The media doesn't need to cover for BHO.

Fitz has already seen fit to do so.

Let's Make A Deal

clipped from ace.mu.nu

And Obama's denials are very circumscribed:

n a news conference in Chicago to introduce his choice as secretary of health and human services in the new administration, Obama reiterated that he has never spoken to Blagojevich about the appointment of a replacement to serve out the remainder of Obama's Senate term, and he said he has not been contacted by any federal investigators regarding the case.

Obama said he has asked his team to "gather all the facts about any staff contacts" that might have taken place between his office and Blagojevich or his advisers. But he said he was "absolutely certain" that his office was not involved in "any deal-making" with Blagojevich on the Senate seat.


Obviously, "I" didn't talk about this to Blago allows for the possibility that, say, Rahm Emmanuel did, and a denial about "any deal-making" doesn't mean deals weren't discussed. Just not made.

Thanks to CJ.

I Think I Know Now What It Will Take To Kick Off The Oministration

Ruh-Roh... It was already reported that Rahm Emanuel was keeping quiet since the Blagojevich Scandal broke.


Thursday, December 11, 2008




Ruh-Roh...Rahm Emanuel Continues to Duck Questions On Hot Rod




Ruh-Roh... It was already reported that Rahm Emanuel was keeping quiet since the Blagojevich Scandal broke.

But, this morning and later this afternoon Rahm Emanuel continued to duck questions about the scandal.
** The Smoking Gun, that bastion of conservative thought, already reported that Emanuel was linked to the case:

"Rahm Emanuel, the incoming White House chief of staff, is referred to in the affidavit as "President-elect Advisor."
He will have to issue his pardons at the start of his term rather than the end. And his pardons may need to be issued from the federal pen.

But the Dems will wonder why anyone would consider it problematic...

The Shut Down

clipped from www.qando.net
As we head toward government health care, I continue to keep a wary eye on the systems presently funcitoning in other countries - like the UK's NHS.

You pick up little nuggets like this:
The NHS already restricts access to expensive new drugs that could benefit older age groups — such as sufferers of Alzheimer's and macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness — amid fears that the costs could cripple the health service.
Why is that important, besides the obvious fact that government is restricting treatment due to cost to 'it'?

The fact that the reason these "expensive new drugs" are available is because there is a system out there in which there is the incentive to develop them. Yes, it is that "horribly expensive" American system, where drug companies are known as Big Pharma and considered to be evil by a certain class.

But what happens if that particular engine of innovation is essentially shut down?

Sarkozy Speaks Sagely

clipped from www.qando.net
"I have said this to my friend Kofi [Annan]: I find it impossible to shake hands with somebody who has dared to say that Israel must be wiped off the map.

"I know perfectly well that we must resolve what is perhaps the most serious international crisis we are having to resolve: that of Iran moving towards a nuclear bomb.

"We cannot resolve it without talking to Iranian leaders, but, after what was the Shoah, after what was the 20th century, I cannot sit at the same table as a man who dares to say: Israel must be wiped off the map."
How indeed. But the world continues to crowd their table and they continue to show their arrogance, defiance and disdain. Perhaps if more world leaders expressed their thoughts about cabal's such as those that constitute Iran's leadership, it would do more to delegitimize them both at home and abroad.

Arrived And Then Some

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

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)

blago1

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

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.
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
 blog it

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?”

Tuesday, December 09, 2008

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...

Saturday, December 06, 2008

The Sunnis Object

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.

Monday, December 01, 2008

OZero OAccountability

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.

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Submission In Mumbai

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.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

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.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

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.

Monday, November 24, 2008

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.

 blog it

Sunday, November 23, 2008

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?

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.