ED MORRISSEY: Has Obama Quit Already? “Penn wonders why Obama didn’t think to work with House Republicans on deficit reduction, but he might have asked why Obama didn’t bother to work with Senate Democrats on the jobs bill, either. The White House apparently forgot to consult with its own allies in the upper chamber when writing the rerun of the 2009 stimulus bill, only to discover to their embarrassment that it won’t pass the Senate. . . . Obama mailed in both proposals rather than engage in the hard work of governance. If Obama had any interest in actually passing his deficit-reduction plan, he would not have filled it with tax hikes that have floated around the Beltway for years — and which both Republicans and Democrats have rejected in the past. The jobs bill was even less creative than his approach to deficit reduction, cribbed from a failed and costly exercise in central economic control. Obama didn’t bother to put much effort into either because he has no intention of doing the hard work needed to accomplish actual deficit reduction or improve the job-creation climate. The president has more than a year to go before the next election, but Obama has stopped governing and has shifted entirely to campaign mode. This is what it looks like when a president quits.”
Archive for 2011
September 20, 2011
TODAY ONLY: 38% Off On Zumba Fitness For Wii and Xbox 360.
WHAT WILL COME AFTER “EUROPE?” The riots of Athens will become those of Milan, Madrid and Marseilles. Border checkpoints will return. Currencies will be resurrected, then devalued. Well, there’s a cheery take.
BLEG: A reader emails: “I live in the Southwest and fear a catastrophic, extended power failure similar to the San Diego outage. Generators are a solution, but expensive. I need something to keep the batteries up on my cell phone, a radio and perhaps a ham radio handset. Cheapest I found so far were the Goal0 solar units for backpackers. Do your readers have any other suggestions?”
HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): IMF downgrades outlook for US and Europe economies.
HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT: In early Obama White House, female staffers felt frozen out. “The acknowledgment Monday by White House officials of discontent among high-level female staffers in the early days came even as Obama aides tried to paint the Suskind book as inaccurate.”
TOM BLUMER: From ‘Scandal-Free’ to Near Scandal Fatigue in Three Weeks. “‘Squeaky clean’ no more — as if they ever were.”
KEITH HENNESSEY: The President’s “balanced” misdirection.
WELCOME TO THE 21ST CENTURY: No Smelly Yucky boyz Allowed in!
LIGHTSQUARED UPDATE: White House offered “guidance” to second witness in LightSquared inquiry.
HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): August home building fell 5 pct., slide continues. “Construction fell to its lowest levels in 50 years in 2009, when builders began work on just 554,000 homes. Last year was not much better and this year is shaping up to be just bad.”
Unexpectedly! “Housing starts fell more than expected in August as groundbreaking for both single-family and multi-family units dropped, suggesting the economy will not get help from residential construction anytime soon.”
MICKEY KAUS: “More Cowbell” On Medicare: “If you like IPAB (Obamacare’s Independent Payment Advisory Board), you’ll love Obama’s proposed Medicare cuts! Problem: We hate IPAB.”
VIDEO: Debunking the Palestine lie.
THE TAXPAYER PAYS TWICE: Green Jobs: Laid Off Solyndra Employees Applying for Federal Re-Training Funds.
WELL, MAIN STREET DOESN’T HAVE THE SAME WHITE HOUSE CONNECTIONS: Main Street More Pessimistic Than Wall Street.
CHANGE: Atlas Takes Heat For Melting Glacier Claim. Well, less change than the Atlas says. . . .
UPDATE: Atlasgate: ‘A Killer Mistake That Cannot Be Winked Away.’
BALKANS: Turkish Gunboat Diplomacy.
DEVAL PATRICK, CAUGHT IN CAR DURING “CAR-FREE WEEK.” “‘It’s a little bit of hypocrisy,’ observed one commuter.”
ANOTHER RUBE SELF-IDENTIFIES: David Brooks: “I’m a sap, a specific kind of sap. I’m an Obama Sap.” “The president is sounding like the Al Gore for President campaign, but without the earth tones. Tax increases for the rich! Protect entitlements! People versus the powerful! I was hoping the president would give a cynical nation something unconventional, but, as you know, I’m a sap.”
We’ve known it for a while, David. My question: Is this a real breakthrough, or will he lapse back into rubeitude at the sight of sharply-creased pants?
PRESIDENT CLARITY: Victor Davis Hanson: The Great Obama Catharsis. “Barack Obama has done the United States a great, though unforeseen, favor. He has brought to light, as no one else could, many of the pernicious assumptions of our culture from the last half-century. He turned theory and ‘what ifs’ into fact for all America to see, experience, and, yes, suffer through. . . . Had McCain been elected, or had Obama proved a canny Clinton triangulator, we would never have gotten out of the bipartisan rut of massive borrowing, growing government, higher taxes, and unionized public employee regulators. But with Obama as the great liberal deliverer and with the masses scared to death of Him, the next president will inherit an America in catharsis. The future is uncertain, but at least now, after our cauterizing, we have some sort of chance to return to the old principles that might save us.”
SAUDIS DON’T LIKE “ETHICAL OIL:” Take Your Secret Saudi Threats And Shove ‘Em.
Saudi Arabia has hired lawyers to threaten Canadian broadcasters who dare to run a TV ad critical of Saudi conflict oil.
I know this because I am the volunteer chairman of EthicalOil.org, the non-profit website that promotes Canada’s oilsands as an ethical alternative to the conflict oil of Saudi Arabia and other OPEC dictatorships.
Alykhan Velshi, who runs EthicalOil.org, produced a 30-second TV ad comparing the treatment of women in Canada with the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia. That’s a place where women can’t drive, can’t vote and can’t even get medical care without the permission of their husbands/owners.
Compare that to Canada, where the mayor of the oilsands capital, Fort McMurray, is a young woman named Melissa Blake.
Saudi Arabia doesn’t like criticism like that, though. They are a fascist state without a free press or any opposition political parties. And now they’ve hired one of the world’s largest law firms, a 2,600-lawyer monstrosity called Norton Rose, to threaten Canada’s media into silence, too.
So far I don’t think it’s helping their publicity. Plus this: “Like Greenpeace, the Saudis hate our oilsands. They’re usually content to let Greenpeace do the heavy lifting. But this time, the Saudis were caught red-handed.”
DALE AMON files from New York.
OBAMA’S REVOLVING DOOR: BAILOUT CAPTAIN CASHES OUT. “It’s almost like greater government involvement in the economy spawns more revolving-door action.” Almost.