…is mid-way through a most enjoyable paid summer vacation, all on the taxpayers’ dime.
Now, here’s The Gouge!
Leading off the last edition of the week, as suggested by the latest posting at Hope ‘n Change…
“Per John the Econ’s posting in the comments section, now that Obama has fixed race relations in our country and foreign relations abroad, he is returning his “laser-like focus” to jobs and the economy. And then he’s going to Martha’s Vineyard to play golf.“
…we begin the day with coverage of another fruitless attempt by Der Obafuhrer’s to right a capsizing economy…which is akin to Captain Smith advocating the Titanic take on more ballast.
We should note, in our opinion, any expectation Team Tick-Tock can handle anything beyond feathering their own beds is reminiscent of Chief O’Hara’s assessment of the capabilities of Gotham City’s police force:
Saints preserve oos!
First up, Keith Koffler’s White House Dossier details the Progressive endgame:
Obama’s Plan: One Nation, Under Government
You’ve probably read that the series of speeches President Barack Obama started giving Wednesday are a “pivot” to the economy designed to rev things up. Well, they’re not. Obama’s speeches will be no less than the manifesto of a leftist president who plans to spend his remaining time in office installing as much of his big government “project” as possible by whatever means he can get away with.
If you got the wrong message, it’s because Washington reporters too often have a poor understanding of people who have a systematic philosophy and truly believe in what they are doing. Reporters, focused on who is up this day and who’s down the next, have difficulty discerning the intent of someone like Obama — who is thinking much more long term. (No…they just aligned with his goals and have no problem not reporting the truth.)
Obama, with his speeches, is intent on laying out the rationale and building public support for “fundamentally transforming America” — as he promised five days before being elected in 2008.
Speaking Wednesday at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, Obama presented a statist vision that should send chills down the spine of anyone who believes that free markets, not government, create wealth.Obama sketched a series of problems that he says confront the United States and hold back what he called the middle class. He might as well have used the term “proletariat,” though — because every fetter he described requires government intervention to make things right.“We need a long-term American strategy,” he said, “based on steady, persistent effort, to reverse the forces that have conspired against the middle class for decades. That has to be our project.”
Let’s forget about the Internal Revenue Service and Benghazi, and political debate: “With this endless parade of distractions and political posturing and phony scandals, Washington has taken its eye off the ball. And I am here to say this needs to stop.”
What needs to start? Government spending. Hold onto your income, because the taxman cometh. Every problem, in Obama’s thinking, requires a government solution masterminded by the altruism and genius of central planners such as he.
Is business lagging? Lets invest billions to build new ports, transportation systems, power grids, bridges and communications networks to provide infrastructure and, by the way, create “good-paying jobs” with paychecks signed ultimately by Uncle Sam. While we’re at it, let’s expand worker-training programs.
Is American manufacturing floundering? Let’s create government-funded “manufacturing innovation institutes” that “partner” with the private sector to “turn regions left behind by global competition into global centers of cutting-edge jobs.”Meanwhile, White House economists will perform surgery on the tax code to reward companies that don’t outsource overseas or that invest in proper green technologies.
Are our kids too stupid for the 21st century? Let’s provide a brand new entitlement and “make high-quality preschool available for every 4-year-old in America.” Such a scheme “will also provide a vital support system for working parents. “ That is, government-financed daycare for all. College is an entitlement too, so Obama will soon “lay out an aggressive strategy to shake up the system, tackle rising costs, and improve value for middle-class students and their families.”
Exactly what that means is not clear. But it’s obviously not coming from the private sector.
Need more health care? Let’s get to “fully implementing the Affordable Care Act.”Is opportunity not knocking? “We need a new push to rebuild rundown neighborhoods.”
The democratically elected House of Representatives is conservative and stands in the way of such massive government intrusion. But never mind that. Poor choices by voters cannot be permitted to interfere with the left’s noble designs. “I will not allow gridlock, or inaction, or willful indifference to get in our way,” Obama warned. “That means whatever executive authority I have to help the middle class, I’ll use it. Where I can’t act on my own and Congress isn’t cooperating, I’ll pick up the phone — I’ll call CEOs; I’ll call philanthropists; I’ll call college presidents; I’ll call labor leaders. I’ll call anybody who can help — and enlist them in our efforts.”
Just listen to the contempt Obama harbors for those who disagree with him.“Now, there are others who will dismiss every idea I put forward either because they’re playing to their most strident supporters, or in some cases because, sincerely, they have a fundamentally different vision for America,” Obama said. “One that says inequality is both inevitable and just; one that says an unfettered free market without any restraints inevitably produces the best outcomes, regardless of the pain and uncertainty imposed on ordinary families, and government is the problem and we should just shrink it as small as we can.”
Conservatives, in Obama’s view want to inflict pain on Americans. Is it not therefore just to take any steps necessary to oppose such iniquity and replace it with “equality” and justice?
Obama has made his plans for the country clear. “Government,” he said, “can give the middle class a fair shot in this new century.” So government must accrue power and act to correct the errors of a market economy and the injustices spawned by too much individual freedom.
Don’t say you weren’t warned.By him.
In other words, he’s advocating Communism…
…which has worked so well everywhere else in the world!
In a related item, courtesy of The Weekly Standard, Fred Barnes believes The Dear Misleader’s eighth effort at trotting out the same old trite tripe clearly indicates he’s…
Older, But Not Wiser
Obama’s first speech in a series is a predictable bust.
“As a country, we’re older and we’re wiser,” President Obama declared in a speech today in Galesburg, Illinois. He’s certainly older. But on the basis of this speech bristling with tired ideas he’s trotted out time and time again, Obama himself is anything but wiser.
A quick read turns up false and misleading claims, pious promises, and statements that mean nothing. “I will engage the American people in this debate” over America’s future, he said. Not with this boring, forgettable speech, he won’t. Somebody at the White House needs to tell truth to power: Mr. Obama, no one takes your speeches seriously any more.
He says he’s “challenging CEOs…to hire more Americans.” By boosting their cost of doing business by imposing Obamacare? Thanks to the president, CEOs are hiring more…more part-time workers, that is.“I care about one thing and one thing only, and that’s how to use every minute of the 1,276 days remaining in my term to make this country work for working Americans again,” he said. This begs the question: What have you been doing for the past four-and-one-half years?
In the dubious claims department, Obama laid it on thick. “We now produce more natural gas than any country on Earth,” he said. True, but this has occurred despite the dead hand of Obama’s regulators. “We have tough new rules on big banks,” he said. But the big banks are bigger than ever and still too big to fail.
There’s “a new foundation for stronger, more durable economic growth,” Obama went on. But who thinks this will be case once the Federal Reserve stops pumping $85 billion into the economy each month? Only a few dreamers.
As for wind and solar power, they’ve doubled during his presidency, Obama claimed. He fails to mention the reason. They’ve been lavished with huge taxpayer subsidies. Otherwise, they fail the market test.
And remember the “sequester”? It was his idea to force spending cuts of $100 billion or so for 10 years. Now, though the sequester’s impact has been chiefly to reduce our military strength, he blames Republicans for “leaving in place a meat cleaver” that’s done everything from costing jobs to gutting education and scientific research.
As usual for an Obama speech, there’s plenty of pie in the sky. He’ll “rebuild run-down neighborhoods.” He’s for making preschool available for 4-year-olds—no mention of the cost—and providing “a vital support system for working parents.” Translated, that means taxpayer paid babysitting.
One could go on. Obama took his normal tack with Republicans. He called on them to find “common ground” with him, then trashed them as folks who think inequality is “both inevitable and just” and favor an “unfettered free market…regardless of the pain and uncertainty imposed on ordinary families.”
As expected, the president presented himself as the champion of the middle class. But he gets its role upside down. Since World War II, “a growing middle class was the engine of our prosperity,” he said. Wrong. Our prosperity created a growing middle class.
In the unlikelihood you’ve been paying attention to Obama’s speeches, you’ve heard all this before, particularly about what government will do for you. For Obama, free markets are irrelevant. But here’s the worst part. This speech was first of a series on the economy.
Or, as NRO‘s Jim Geraghty terms The Great Divider’s latest paean to Progressivism…
Wealthy Guy Who Golfs Frequently and Hangs Out with Millionaires Laments Income Inequality
And for inquiring minds who thought Der Obafuhrer’s reception was far more enthusiastic than his timeworn cliches deserved, there’s a good reason; as Nathan Harden writing at NRO‘s The Corner, courtesy of Bill Meisen, relates:
President Obama was bound to receive a warm response from the audience attending his speech at the University of Central Missouri yesterday — because some students who disagreed with him weren’t allowed into the building. Christopher White of The College Fix reports that students wearing “Tea Party T-Shirts and others who wore patriotic or Republican-inspired clothing” were turned away at the door under the guise of security concerns, despite the fact that they held tickets to the event.
I’d like to offer a helpful tip to all College Republicans who hope to attend an Obama speech in the future: Odds of admission improve if you wear a Che Guevara t-shirt, an “I Heart Kim Jong Un” campaign button, and/or a ballcap displaying the slogan “Obama Girl” prominently above the brim.
Which brings us to our Money Quote, courtesy today of Best of the Web:
““President Obama said reporters praise his economic proposals as ‘great’ and tell him they are ‘all good ideas,’ ” TheHill.com notes in a report on yesterday’s speech. No doubt the guys at the Korean Central News Agency say similar things about Kim Jong-un’s ideas, although one is more inclined to question the latter’s sincerity as opposed to their intelligence.“
Next up, Seth Mandel writing at Commentary Magazine observes that…
On Abortion, It’s Liberals vs. Public Opinion
If pro-abortion activist Wendy Davis was seeking to move the polls on public attitudes toward abortion and her own political fortunes, she seems to have succeeded–though surely not in the direction she intended. After Davis’s media blitz, Texas voters still made clear they’d vote against her for governor. And now the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll confirms what has been the case all along: Davis and the Democrats hold extremist views on abortion.
The Post reports: “By a margin of 56 to 27 percent, more Americans say they’d prefer to impose limits on abortions after the first 20 weeks of pregnancy rather than the 24-week mark established under current law, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.” That 20-week mark was the subject of the restrictive abortion bill that Davis worked so hard to stop in Texas–though the Texas bill also sought to upgrade health facilities for women, which Davis also strenuously opposed.
The media, which tends to be far more pro-abortion than the rest of the country, has tried to cloak that extremism with spin.(What a surprise!) In the case of Davis’s poll numbers, they were forced to argue that “Wendy Davis won’t be the next governor but could help Democrats win the larger political war.” In the writeup of the new abortion poll, the Post adds:
More broadly, overall support for legal abortion remains stable, with 55 percent saying abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 41 percent say it should be illegal in most or all cases. That finding is similar to a 2012 Post-ABC poll and surveys in recent years.
Pro-abortion activists may see that as a silver lining, but it’s not much out of step with the rest of the poll. Most abortions take place before the 20-week mark, which means a bill restricting abortion after that point would still mean abortion in most cases would be left in place. An additional ten percent of respondents didn’t think the 20-week restrictions would go far enough, making the Wendy Davis Democrats true outliers in public opinion.
The real silver lining for the left, if there is one, would be this part of the poll:
By more than a 2 to 1 margin — 66 to 30 percent — Americans say they prefer that abortion laws be decided for all states on the basis of the U.S. Constitution, rather than a state-by-state approach. This applies to both hardcore abortion rights supporters and opponents: 73 percent of those who say abortion should always be legal want a national rule, as do 72 percent of those who say it should be illegal in all cases.
A majority of Americans want a national abortion standard subject to Supreme Court approval of its constitutionality. This is where the left has some success. When American voters disapprove of liberal culture-war stands, the courts can often be counted on to legislate from the bench, especially when pressured by the administration and the media to get in line.The high court has already established precedent inventing a right to abort children in the Constitution, so getting national law to conform with popular opinion would be an uphill slog.
The other interesting aspect of the poll is the support for abortion, or opposition to the abortion facility regulations, that didn’t come from the self-identified liberal end of the spectrum:
Meanwhile a Columbus, Ohio, resident who asked that he only be identified by his first name, Robert, and described himself as “a conservative Republican” who backs abortion rights, said he did not understand why politicians were seeking to rewrite the nation’s abortion laws.
“I would really prefer that government focus on fiscal issues, and stay out of the social issues,” he said.
And Milo Shield, a professor at Augsburg College who lives in Prescott, Wis., said he also supports abortion access without restrictions until the 24th week of pregnancy. He questioned Wisconsin’s new law requiring hospital admitting privileges for abortion doctors, which Planned Parenthood said could shutter two of its four clinics in the state.
“There doesn’t seem to be data about whether it makes a difference to have a doctor present or hospital admitting privileges,” said Shield, who considers himself a libertarian and does not affiliate with either party. “I don’t know what Wisconsin’s rationale was. It’s like creationism — it’s shrouded in science, but not science-based.”
The second commenter here identifies as a libertarian, and the earlier comment was from a “conservative Republican” who expressed a fairly libertarian attitude by telling the government to focus on fiscal issues “and stay out of the social issues.” The libertarian approval of unrestricted abortion is something I find baffling. The science is pretty clear: the unborn child is the same human person before and after birth. Any policy approach that gives some people less value and fewer rights than others doesn’t strike me as particularly “libertarian.”
But it does get at a point encountered often in political discussions: people just aren’t that comfortable talking about abortion, at least to the extent they are usually comfortable talking about, say, taxes. The media plays a role in this, casting opposition to abortion as part of a “war on women,” a shameful smear that is simply not supported by the polling but which is intended to foreclose debate precisely because Americans side with conservatives on this issue more than Democrats, and certainly more than abortion absolutists on the left.
This reminds us of Mario Cuomo’s hopelessly hypocritical and contrasting stands on abortion versus capital punishment. Mario was morally opposed to abortion, but claimed to permit the practice out of respect for the will of the electorate. But when it came to capital punishment, an issue a vast majority of New Yorkers supported, Cuomo had no compunction allowing his politically-inspired repugnance to overrule the undeniable voice of the people.
Speaking of lying hypocrites, as this forward from Carl Polizzi informs us…
Nancy Pelosi schedules Democratic hearing on ‘race and justice’
When it comes to any conversation on race she’ll chair, ’twill be the dumb leading the deaf!
House Democrats will hold a hearing next week to weigh in on the controversy swirling around the recent verdict in the George Zimmerman trial. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced “A Conversation on Race and Justice” on July 30 on Capitol Hill.
According to a Pelosi aide, the hearing will not focus solely on the trial, which acquitted Zimmerman of murder charges in the shooting death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin, but will be a “broader conversation.” Pelosi will preside over the hearing, which will include Democrats from the party’s Steering and Policy Committee.
The scheduled panelists are Southern Poverty Law Center founder Morris Dees, Washington Post columnist Eugene Robinson and civil rights lawyer Maya Wiley, president of the Center for Social Inclusion.
We must assume prior engagements prevented…
…The Reverends and New Black Panthers from participating in the panel.
Turning to the “Unions: Can’t Live With ‘Em, Can’t Fire ‘Em!” segment…
“What a joy to set police speed guns off”: Spanish driver whose derailed train killed at least 80 people while traveling at 120 mph in a 50 mph zone posted boasting Facebook photo oi speedometer
Meet the Spanish equivalent of ObamaScare.
And since we’re on the subject of Idiots on Parade, submitted for your perusal, the latest confirmation those who never learned history shouldn’t try to recall it:
We’ll take odds she next to The Obamao in his Constitutional Law class.
On the Lighter Side…
Then there’s these four funnies forwarded by Brenda Berry:
And at the risk of speaking ill of the dearly departed, we present today’s edition of the “You Know It’s Not Your Day When…” segment, and this curious tale from the Pine Tree State:
Maine hikers drive to ocean deaths after being rescued
A pregnant Maine woman and her friend visiting from Pennsylvania who had been rescued after getting lost hiking died when they accidentally drove their car off a boat ramp and into the ocean, authorities said. Amy Stiner, 37, of Machias, and Melissa Moyer, 38, of Sunbury, Pa., presumably drowned when Stiner drove her car down the boat ramp at the end of a dead-end road at about 9 p.m. Tuesday in this town of 300 people in eastern Maine, said Washington County Sheriff Donnie Smith.
…Earlier in the evening, the women got lost while hiking in Roque Bluffs State Park amid fog and a steady downpour, the Portland Press Herald reported. A off-duty firefighter found them and their dog and gave them rides on his ATV back to his house, where a warden picked them up and brought them to their vehicle, which was parked at the park.
But Stiner then drove toward the boat ramp instead of in the other direction to Machias, Smith said. Authorities found the submerged car about 175 feet off the boat ramp, the women and the dog inside with the doors closed and the windows up. The Portland Press Herald reported that the women were able to call 911 as the car was entering the water. “They said they were in the water and the car was filling with the water. And then the phone just went dead,” Washington County Sheriff Donnie Smith told the newspaper.
Weather could have contributed to the accident, Smith said. “It appears they went the wrong direction and drove off the ramp,” he said. “If you don’t know the area, in the fog and rain it wouldn’t be a difficult thing to do.”
Smith said blood tests will be conducted on the bodies but he did not suspect alcohol or drugs contributed to the fatal accident.
Seriously; rather than calling 911 and waiting for the cavalry, perhaps these ladies should have been focused on the task at hand, i.e., exiting the vehicle. Then again, given the fact they’d just been rescued after losing their way hiking in the rain and fog, it’s likely these two weren’t the brightest stars in the firmament. Nonetheless, we’re in agreement with John Donne: “any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
Uhhh…except for, as detailed by James Taranto, the Canadian equivalent of Robert Maplethorpe:
The Great White North
“A controversial Fringe Festival performance featuring two naked actors engaging in mayonnaise enemas and a sexual act on stage left some audience members in shock while others walked out of the theatre Friday night,” CBC News reports from Winnipeg, Manitoba:
The show, called Hollywood Hen Pit, stars Doug Melnyk and Ian Mozdzen, who are known for their edgy performances, having raised eyebrows in 2011 with their Fringe play Monopoly Man Pit. This year’s performance is about the life of an aging Hollywood starlet, as performed by two nude men.
“What I saw were not one, not two, but three mayonnaise enemas,” said Fringe Festival reviewer Michelle Palansky, who was in the audience Friday night. “By the third time . . . I was like, you know, this is gratuitous. I do not need to see any more mayonnaise enemas for the rest of my lifetime.”
Of course, back in the early 1990s the National Endowment for the Arts generously funded this kind of cutting-edge art. It’s just another example of how America is falling behind its neighbor to the north.
Take off, hoser; like, “by the third time”, eh?!? Seriously, if three mayonnaise enemas are “gratuitous”, what’s one…art?!?
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