The Republican Party yesterday elected it’s first black chairman, former Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele. This prompted CNN’s Wolf Blitzer to declare:
“Take a look at the audience, though — and I want to show our viewers a picture of the audience. Michael Steele, the first African-American leader of the RNC — Leslie [Sanches, GOP strategist], I don’t see a whole lot of black people, at least in that group over there.”
For the record, there’s a lot of that going around:
During the campaign, conservatives bashed then-candidate Barack Obama for this remark:
“We can’t drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times … and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK,” Obama said.
“That’s not leadership. That’s not going to happen,” he added.
Now that Obama is leader of the free world, his actions demonstrate a different attitude to leadership.
The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.
“He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.”
For the record, orchid-growing temperatures range from the high-60s to the low-80s depending on the type of orchid.
Obama’s failure to practice what he preaches when it comes to environmentalism is epidemic on the left. Ted Kennedy is all for wind turbines, as long as they don’t affect his view. Al Gore doesn’t see the disconnect between conspicuous consumption and his huge boat. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi aghast at automotive executives flying on private jets, but she can’t be bothered to fly commercial either.
As your energy bills rise over the next few years, keep this in mind.
A couple of notes on the ongoing culture wars:
During the Bush administration, President Bush displayed his concern for both mother and unborn child by putting an administrative rule in place allowing states to cover unborn children in the SCHIP program. On Thursday, the Senate rejected an amendment to make that administrative rule national law.
This is foolish even by Democrats’ standards. These are babies that their mother’s want to be born (pro-choice!), yet the Democrats don’t want to respect that choice. Also, from a strictly fiscal standpoint, mothers without adequate pre-natal care are more likely to cost SCHIP more after the baby is born than it would have if pre-natal care had been covered. The administrative rule remains, but is subject to President Barack Obama’s whims.
While I worked at the White House — from 2001 to 2006 — I saw Dybul combine the ability to build bipartisan consensus for PEPFAR on Capitol Hill with exceptional compassion for the victims of a cruel and wasting sickness. It mattered little to the Bush administration that Dybul was openly gay or that he had contributed to Democratic candidates in the past. He was recognized as a great humanitarian physician — a man of faith and conscience — almost universally respected among legislators, AIDS activists, foreign leaders and health experts. Almost.A few radical “reproductive rights” groups — the fringe of a fringe — accused Dybul of advocating “abstinence only” programs in AIDS prevention. It was always a lie. Dybul consistently supported comprehensive prevention efforts that include abstinence, faithfulness and condom use — the approach that African governments themselves developed. In fact, Dybul was sometimes attacked from the right for defending a broad definition of AIDS prevention, including programs to address prostitution and transgenerational sex. Over the years, PEPFAR distributed 2.2 billion condoms — hardly an “abstinence only” approach.
By encouraging Dybul to stay until his successor was in place, the Obama administration displayed a generous spirit, as well as a practical concern for continuity in a vital program.
Then, the day after the inauguration, Dybul received a call asking him to submit his resignation and to leave by the end of the day. There was no chance to reassure demoralized staffers, or PEPFAR teams abroad, or the confused health ministers of other nations. The only people who seemed pleased were a few blogging extremists, one declaring, “Dybul Out: Thank you, Hillary!!!”
So much for the new politics.
An article in Middle East Quarterly purports to show the amount of foreign aid given to the Palestinians tracks with the number of homicides committed there.
In the midst of the effort in Paris to bestow unprecedented sums of foreign aid on the Palestinians, there was little discussion of the unintended consequences — often deadly ones — of previous aid regimens. The recent history of foreign assistance shows a distinct correlation between aid and violence. Perhaps aid itself does not cause violence, but there is strong evidence that it contributes to a culture of corruption, government malfeasance, and terrorism that has had lethal consequences for both Israelis and Palestinians over the past decade.
This is actually somewhat unsurprising. If you have to work long hours just to support yourself, it’s unlikely that you have time for “extracurricular” activities.
Contra the Jimmy Carter position (outlined so ably by the anti-Semite himself in the post below), there will be no opportunity for peace between Israelis and Palestinians until you have a couple of generations of Palestinians raised in something other than the toxic, Jew-hating crucible of the U.N.-run school system.
Former President Jimmy Carter appeared on the “Today Show” yesterday and demonstrated that he is amoral at best when it comes Arab terrorist groups whose sole aim is to kill all the Jews.
Of course, if the press had any sense, they’d stop interviewing the doddering old anti-Semite.
The economy continues to tank with Caterpillar announcing more layoffs today.
In response to deteriorating business conditions, Caterpillar Inc., the world’s largest maker of mining and construction equipment, disclosed nearly 20,000 job cuts, most of which already have been made. They include 5,000 new layoffs of white collar workers, which will occur globally by the end of March.
Earlier actions included the elimination of 2,500 Caterpillar workers through a buyout offer announced in December, the termination of about 8,000 contract and temp agency workers, and the reduction of 4,000 full-time factory workers through firings and buyouts.
How would one fix this?
Maybe by signing the Colombia Free Trade Agreement that Democrats hate so.
Exports by companies such as GE and Caterpillar create U.S. jobs and show why President-Elect Barack Obama and Congress shouldn’t put restraints on trade, said Doug Oberhelman, a Caterpillar group president.
“Why are we seeing this rush to protectionism when we’re talking about creating American jobs?” Oberhelman, who oversees Caterpillar’s global engine business as well as human services, sustainable development and remanufacturing, said in an Oct. 28 interview.
GE gets more than half of its sales from overseas as the world’s biggest maker of power-plant turbines, jet engines and medical-imaging equipment. Caterpillar, the largest maker of backhoes and excavators, exports half the machines built in some U.S. plants.
Caterpillar, based in Peoria, Ill., supports a proposed free-trade agreement with Colombia, which Oberhelman said unfairly imposes tariffs on U.S.-made goods entering the country.
“They’re already exporting everything free, and we have to pay to export there,” he said.
Some of these jobs could certainly be restored if the Democrats would simply pass the free trade agreement. Unfortunately, they probably won’t. Will the press question Obama on his refusal to bring up the trade pact?
Don’t hold your breath.
This graph of the United States’ adjusted monetary base comes courtesy of the St. Louis Fed:
Wow. Just wow.
Can you say inflation? Stagflation?
I’ve noted before that the Republican Study Committee has a lot of good ideas on providing the economy a needed kick-start. Some conservative commentators have also suggested cutting the payroll tax — something that would be felt by rich and poor alike and would also help businesses to keep employing workers.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t look as though any of these alternatives is likely to become part of the Democrats’ “stimulus” bill. Elections have consequences, and as Barack Obama likes to say: He won.
Instead, we get a “stimulus” bill that looks suspiciously similar to a pork chop the size of Texas wrapped in bacon. Included in this stimulus is funding for contraception, funding that Speaker Nancy Pelosi is quick to defend.
“Well, the family planning services reduce cost. They reduce cost. The states are in terrible fiscal budget crises now and part of what we do for children’s health, education and some of those elements are to help the states meet their financial needs. One of those – one of the initiatives you mentioned, the contraception, will reduce costs to the states and to the federal government.”
Let’s ignore the fact that what Pelosi is advocating here is a sort of soft, government-sponsored eugenics program. She’s really only concerned with the “wrong” type of people breeding — poor, minorities — the kind that Margaret Sanger didn’t like either.
What is the long term effect of a declining population on the economy? Not good.
The reason why Social Security is in such a crisis is the fact that there are fewer and fewer workers every year to pay for the growing number of retirees. Tomorrow’s babies are the workers the economy will need to pay the retirement benefits of people in their late 40s and early 50s down the line.
You can consider the contraceptive funding pork, but only a fool would try to defend it as stimulus.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman has an op-ed in today’s New York Times that is worthy of little more than scorn and derision. I leave it to Jon Henke, Bryan Pick and Tom Maguire to do the heavy lifting. I just want to take a little delight in Krugman’s closing paragraph:
But here’s the thing: Most Americans aren’t listening. The most encouraging thing I’ve heard lately is Mr. Obama’s reported response to Republican objections to a spending-oriented economic plan: “I won.” Indeed he did — and he should disregard the huffing and puffing of those who lost.
I love how having a Democrat in the White House changes Krugman’s attitude when it comes to listening to what your opponents have to say.
The Washington Post’s Anne E. Kornblut has a hysterical article about women unable to break through the proverbial glass ceiling. I know, you think this is an old article about either: a) Hillary Rodham Clinton’s failure to win the Democratic Party’s nomination for president, or b) John McCain failing to win the presidency with Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.
Well, you’re wrong. This article is about … Caroline Kennedy.
With her abrupt exit this week from consideration for the Senate, Caroline Kennedy added her name to a growing list: women who have sought the nation’s highest offices only to face insurmountable hurdles.
Like Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sarah Palin before her, Kennedy illustrated what some say is an enduring double standard in the handling of ambitious female office-seekers. Even as more women step forward as contenders for premier political jobs, observers say, few seem able to get there.
In less than two months, Kennedy, 51, was transformed from a beloved, if elusive, national icon into a laughingstock in the New York media, mocked for her verbal tics and criticized for her spotty voting record. After she withdrew from consideration, speculation floated that she had done so to avoid discussion of an illegal nanny and back taxes, charges that people close to Kennedy disputed and that New York Gov. David A. Paterson’s office indicated in a statement yesterday were not factors. Paterson plans to name a successor today to Clinton, who vacated the Senate seat to become President Obama’s secretary of state.
Of course, this glass ceiling has long been broken. After all, Kennedy aspired to replace Hillary Clinton. And Clinton wasn’t the first female senator in the first place. The article appears especially foolish when you take in to account that the very day it appeared in print, Paterson named a woman to fill the seat, Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand.
If there’s a bigger message behind Caroline Kennedy’s aborted bid than her failure to appear as a competent Senate replacement it is the imposition of something akin to a meritocracy instead of an American elite based only on a famous name.
Obama waited until his third full day in office to open the funding spigot to abortion providers overseas. I had predicted he would do it on his first full day in office. I was wrong.
But Obama’s accompanying statement regarding his executive order was laughable and somewhat offensive.
Obama said in a statement that family planning aid has been used as a “political wedge issue,” adding that he had “no desire to continue this stale and fruitless debate.”
Bolshevik Storytelling. His action continues the “stale and fruitless” debate. The next Republican president will undoubtedly reverse Obama’s move. The debate will continue until Roe v. Wade is overturned and the American people can come to a political accommodation on the issue.
And then there’s the Christian left that’s completely sold-out to whatever Obama does.
Jim Wallis of the progressive evangelical group Sojourners praised Obama for not signing the order on the day of the march and instead marking the day by issuing his first presidential statement about abortion, which called on all sides to find common ground, such as working to reduce abortions.
“President Obama showed respect for both sides in the historically polarized abortion debate, and called for both a new conversation and a new common ground. I hope that this important gesture signals the beginning of a new approach and a new path toward finding some real solutions to decrease the number of abortions in this country and around the world,” Wallis said.
Yeah, thanks for waiting until the day after tens of thousands marched on Washington to give them the proverbial middle finger. Obama could feed Wallis a crap sandwich and he’d thank him for serving it on wheat bread.
Here’s something else for Wallis to chew on: If taxpayers fund “A,” more “A” happens than would if taxpayers didn’t fund it. I’m going to make a depressing prediction right now: The number of abortions in America and worldwide will increase during Obama’s presidency.
Gerald Warner over at the London Telegraph says it best:
To anyone who kept his head, the string of Christmas cracker mottoes booming through the public address system on Washington’s National Mall can only excite scepticism. It is crucial to recall the reality that lies behind the rhetoric. Denouncing “those who seek to advance their aims by inducing terror and slaughtering innocents” comes ill from a man whose flagship legislation, the Freedom of Choice Act, will impose abortion, including partial-birth abortion, on every state in the Union. It seems the era of Hope is to be inaugurated with a slaughter of the innocents.
One suspects that even should the Freedom of Choice Act pass and Obama sign it, that not even that would give Wallis and his fellow Kool-Aid drinkers pause.
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