The Docile Press

Can you imagine the hue and cry of the media if Bush was still the President with the economy hemorrhaging six hundred thousand plus jobs? There would be no old line media passivity in the face of such catastrophe. We would never hear the end of criticism for Bush's mismanagement. Obama is given carte blanche to ruin us with any blame devolving back to the previous administration. This administration is about to attempt to initiate salary caps across the financial industry. During the campaign I predicted this and was told that was unconstitutional nonsense by a family friend who held a high position with Merrill Lynch in Huntsville, that actors, artists, and athletes would be specifically excluded because they by in large support Obama and the Democrats, but others in the private sector would have their bull gored by the rising socialist. Some might have thought Obama would exclude those who did not participate in TARP or ask for government assistance from this unprecedented government intrusion, but I knew Obama would make a grab for all the power he could get. Obama and the Democrats may extend the "helping hand" of government to sustain the nation's dying newspapers. Don't expect any complaint about violation of the First Amendment or how accepting Federal aid would make newspapers compliant instruments of the administration-they mostly are even before the first stimulus check. No matter how ambitious Obama's expansion of government becomes, he will continue to enjoy rave reviews in the dinosaur media, his leftism, race, and ability to blame Bush make him invulnerable, immune from criticism.

The Incoherent Babblers

The last President Bush was regarded as less than eloquent, though those with close personal interaction with him, such as the families of fallen soldiers, generally thought him to be sincere. Obama and his myth of greatness, created by the old line media, is called grand eloquent, though when speaking off the cuff, without his speechwriters and teleprompters, he is often just as flustered as Bush was. But it is not the officeholders who are my focus today but their supporters. Bush's backers tended to be reasoned and well-informed with a working knowledge of the issues, our history, and civics, many of them listeners of talk radio, while Obama's voters tend to favor emotion. Whether hearty union operatives (read labor thugs) or from the realm of academe, Obamites resort to feelings or straw man arguments to explain Democrat Party appeal. Last Saturday, I attended some horse races and whether it was the tenured Vanderbilt lecturer who claimed, "Aren't we a hell of a lot better off now with such a great leader?" or the serving staff at a carving station who were ebullient, with "hope for change", "change for hope", or any of the asinine permutations, those who follow Obama have no idea what he actually stands for or where he is taking the nation. On Thursday, a realtor showed me a marquee property she is listing at $2.1 million. She holds a Masters degree and seems perfectly balanced in every way, but her lemming-like adherence to Obama. She brought him into the sales pitch on a building that Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton composed many of their hits in, saying how in keeping with the administration's vision what a great green and environmentally friendly building this was. Assuredly, the architect(s) in 1928 gave no consideration to the building's environmental impact. People seemed to have a lot more sense back then.

Best Behind US

Tim Geithner, noted tax cheat and Treasury Secretary, said he was determined to overcome the normal economic cycle on Sunday. He said he wanted to prevent a "boom". I assume he wants a steady course, with an economy on an even keel without booms or busts. Yet, the Obama administration has not hesitated to disrupt the cycle which would have produced recovery if allowed to self-correct, by massive and unprecedented government spending by way of stimulus, new, more intrusive regulation of business including the cap and trade system Obama is pushing for, and even outright nationalization of financial (AIG) and automotive companies (Chrysler with GM soon likely to follow). If a national care system follows, the America we have known B.O. (Before Obama) may not be recoverable, even if Republicans or a third, conservative party manages to achieve office, even with the right retaking the House and Senate. So far as I am aware, once granted, no entitlement program has ever been taken away. Now may be the last chance to stop rationed care, and I am not sanguine that the will exists to stop this freedom-stealing, life-altering, death-hastening advance of government intrusion into all our lives. Obama may take your guns, but you will have a nice government provided health card in their place to monitor the most personal aspects of your life from STDs, to whether you smoke, to whether you or your children carry genetic diseases (or even genetic disease markers). I never realized there were so many fools willing to relinquish blood-earned liberty so fast.

The Horsey Bacchanal

Saturday, I attended one of Nashville, Tennessee's premier charity fundraising events, the Iroquois Steeplechase that benefits the Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt. The horses seemed to ignore the throng of spectators and the crowd mostly ignored the horses. The racing was purely incidental. They could have had a tailgate party in a mud field and charged the same admission. Hardly anyone would have noticed the absence of horses and the hospital would have raised just as much money. Who knew so much of life in high society resembled a frat party?

Freedom and Prosperity

The nation's in a pickle/ When the dollar's worth a nickle/ It's time to drown in George Dickel/ When Obama's raising the hammer and sickle/ ACORN says thanks/ As he seizes the banks/ Obama forms new brownshirt ranks/ Backed like Waco, with our own tanks/ To make sure hunters and sportsmen have no more than blanks/ The artful dodger we've elected/ Doesn't care if we're protected/ Doesn't need to be respected/ Just as long as every aspect of our lives is directed/ From the central planning bureau in D. C./ There is no liberty left for you or me.

Buck Stops Elsewhere

Louis Caldera has fallen on his sword to assuage Obama's vanity. Made the sacrificial lamb in the New York City flyover, Caldera resigned, taking the blame, shame, and disgrace with him. I wonder which major national media outlet will afford Caldera the opportunity to tell his side of the story? I am certain none of them will with the possible exception of Fox. This deflecting responsibility for mistakes while taking credit for every auspicious occurrence will be a hallmark of Obama as it was with "Go ask Janet Reno" Bill Clinton. Barack Obama has very narrow shoulders for someone who takes credit for holding up the weight of the world.

Wall of Lies

The Obama administration is constructing false scenarios all over the place to advance a socialist agenda while maintaining popularity in the polls. The unduly rosy picture of the bank stress tests both heartens investors, fueling the current suckers' rally and denies the control economy aspect prevalent in the structure of the Obama agenda. Saying one has no intention of nationalizing banks, means very little if by converting the government's preferred shares to common stock in any coming crisis (the possibility of which the stress tests deliberately minimize), the banks are effectively nationalized with existing common shareholders position so diluted by the government intervention that they have no control of the operations of the bank and their shares are devalued (presuming any value remains). An investor in auto maker Chrysler was philosophical about the central planning takeover-should I call this the Obama five year plan, as the wits in Moscow called their strangling of enterprise and initiative?-he mused, "It is better to have one percent of something than one percent of nothing." This is self-evident, but our founding fathers must be turning over in their graves that so many free men so willingly gave up economic liberty and self-determination.