Time Space Continuum

A friend of mine had a twenty year old Siamese cat. She always talked about how spry Yul was. He would chase his little fuzzy ball on a string, tear his yarn to pieces, make the bell in the tiny plastic orb ring. My friend's circle of acquaintance would marvel at her old cat. One evening at the cocktail hour, her professor colleagues were being entertained and astonished by super kitty. I noticed one doctor of philosophy so engrossed in feline antics that he had eschewed the brie and was devouring cat kibble left casually at the table for when Yul did a leaping daredevil display of hunger. He voted Obama. Finally, I could no longer be silent. I said, "The cat does not know he's twenty(20),the cat does not know what day it is, what week it is, what year it is. I'm not even sure the cat knows he's a cat-the way he is feted he probably thinks he's the King of Thailand." I haven't been invited back, and I feel bad. I heard Yul didn't wake up Monday.

Turmoil, Trauma, Treachery

Economic dislocation is already escalating. Unemployment numbers are rising. Obama has promised a $3000 tax credit for each job a business creates. Even at minimum wage, a full-time employee will make many times that and that does not include the expense of training and benefits. Once hired, Obama's infatuation with trial lawyers will make it problematic to fire anyone. Under Obama, unemployment in the private sector is destined to skyrocket. Government will try to offset this with massive make-work programs in the spirit of FDR's New Deal or Johnson's Great Society, both dismal and demonstrable failures. The taxes to pay for Obama's government leviathan will only cripple entrepreneurs that much more. Herbert Hoover raised taxes in a recession and did a brilliant job of pushing the economy over a cliff. If Obama follows the path of John Maynard Keynes or Lester Thurow, he will injure the nation irrevocably. He must embrace the supply-siders, follow the path of Milton Friedman and Arthur Laffer and allow private enterprise to grow us out of our current travail. But Obama's animus to capitalism and love of power will prevent this. He will not honor his pledge to lower taxes on 95% of the people. In all likelihood, he will betray many of his own high earning voters and raise taxes on everyone already paying them. This was the victory of populism, progressive prevarication, and power madness over patriotism and productive people.

Into the Abyss

Obama collected the support of voters who balloted on the basis of sharing his race. Other Obama backers are union members particularly SEIU members, teachers, and other government workers increasing their own power. Many of his voters were so ill-served by their education in government schools that they simply do not know the difference between capitalism and socialism. Others were young and naive. Obama won the blame America crowd including college professors. Trial lawyers by in large backed Obama. Obama did not run a masterful campaign. He was protected by an uncritical mainstream media. McCain and Palin were pilloried by them. Convicts, non-existent folks, and motor voter illegal aliens seemed to be universal Barry backers. Wasn't Governor Crist brilliant in Florida giving felons their suffrage back? We were told denying these criminals the vote was racist as they were largely African Americans. They were disenfranchised not because they were black but because they were lawbreakers. Now, my own re-elected Republican Senator speaks of creating universal health care and replacing fossil fuels to fight global warming. If the state of Tennessee had wanted ever expansive government, burdensome regulation, and infringement of our lifestyle Senator Alexander, we would have voted for Bob Tuke. Don't cross the aisle to betray your constituents. Fight for Tennessee values.

Woeful Economic Ignorance

Obama says he will cure or economic woes. Generally, our Presidents are not responsible for our success or failure. They have under civil service very limited power to hire or fire, just a few patronage jobs, Cabinet level appointments, ambassadorships, and judicial appointments which all require Congressional confirmation (with the exception of the rare recess appointments to these positions). The Federal Reserve and Bernanke have vastly more influence typically than the President. Obama plans to change this. Like FDR or the Daleys, Barry envisions a voting public beholden to him for jobs. Massive patronage like in the old days of Daley Machine Chicago, huge new programs mimicking the New Deal, the WPA, the National Recovery Act, and even a national civilian force with duties that parallel the military. This is more akin to Fidel Castro or Hugo Chavez than FDR, but somehow, our education system has failed so miserably that many Americans find this incredible expansion of government appealing. A full frontal assault on the investor class will take place under Obama. These risk-takers, already overburdened, may crumble under the weight of increased income and capital gains tax rates. Those who own businesses may be forced to sell with the return of the death tax. Obama will attack consumerism with tariffs and import barriers.Even investors who protected themselves with stop loss orders and hedge will not be able to save their assets from Obama's machinations. And while he ignores the needs of his aunt and hut dweller brother, the junior Senator calls us "selfish."

The Final Furlong

The old warhorse and the colt are nearing the finish line. The feedbag of hope and change may overwhelm experience and wisdom. Hope for what and change how? Economies are cyclic and capitalism has served America well. A cascade of redistribution and ever more intrusive regulation will not cure our ills. Rationed care will stifle research and prevent expensive treatment and transplants. A cascade of bureaucracy and hiring of multitudes of government workers to administer it will break small business. The 143 day wonder will crumble if Red China moves against Taiwan and Putin will be able to assert Russian hegemony at will. If Barney Frank's 25% drop in the military budget is adopted (a peace dividend with no peace), reenlistment will dry up and volunteers will shy away. This will necessitate conscription. Jihadism will be redoubled by our precipitous withdrawal from Iraq. Our First and Second Amendment will be compromised with national laws against hate speech, mandating of hiring of homosexuals by religious organizations, silencing of preaching against alternative lifestyles, forced acceptance of homosexual marriage by the various and several states, and enough regulation of guns and ammunition to make protecting one's family next to impossible. Obama will introduce sentencing reform that will release thousands of prisoners and unleash them on the ever more defenseless public. Obama will end free, fair trade, alter NAFTA, and open our borders to hordes of illegal immigrants and inevitably some of those crossing will be terrorists and drug dealers. Fortunately, some of the foreigners will self-deport with America's rapid decline. Companies will move abroad or close, unemployment will skyrocket, and many working Americans will be forced on the dole and the ignominy of government rationing of food which will become more scarce with the mandated production of more ethanol to fight the global warming bogeyman. Our flagging education system will slip further into the realm of leftist indoctrination with charter schools and vouchers ending. On July 4, 1776, our forefathers brought forth our perfect union. On November 4,2008, try not to ruin it.

The Lemming Nation

Obama supporters are a strange and sometimes thoughtless lot. African Americans were said in one poll to be backing Obama at a rate of 98%. Some commentators have suggested this is natural but would it be deemed natural or wholly racist if whites followed McCain in equal numbers. Some Obamites back the junior Senator because they work for government and realize his huge expansion of government will feather their own nests. For similar reasons, those on welfare back Barry. White liberals filled with guilt for slavery and discrimination that ended decades or a century before they were born will cast their votes with Obama. A Vanderbilt student knocked on my door recently, canvassing the neighborhood for Obama. He was white, well-dressed, and evidently upper middle class. After engaging him briefly, I asked him why he was working for the Obama ticket. Giving me a wounded look suggesting how could anyone not back Barack, the young scholar declared, "Because he's cool, man!" These are the ignoramuses that will put Obama in the White House.

Ivory Tower Idiocy

In the last dispatch, the author mentions the leftist ethos permeating most campuses. David Horowitz has documented and battled the abuse and intimidation by faculty, administration, and school-sanctioned organizations. Speakers including Ann Coulter, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Horowitz himself have been physically assaulted when attempting to speak at universities. Genocide promoter Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (who this columnist affectionately calls Mad Man in love with Jihad or Lunatic besmirched by God) was welcomed with open arms and standing ovations at Columbia University. Ward Connerly who bravely fought to end racial preference set-asides (affirmative action) is a campus pariah while euthanasia (read murder advocate) Peter Singer is a hero to the radicals running education. The problem is not merely a handful of luminaries not being allowed to speak or bloody-handed psychopaths being given a forum, but a systematic slant to the left of elementary, secondary, and university education. Every third grader is well-versed in global-warming green-speak in the public schools. High school students are taught blame America as history. Every black studies major knows of massacres in Oklahoma and Florida but has no idea that as many whites were enslaved by North African pirates as ever were brought to the North American continent as the surpassingly brilliant Thomas Sowell has so aptly chronicled. If Obama wins, the indoctrination will only get worse.