Yes, even the media has noticed the irony that in the post-racial presidency the Sotomayor nomination has brought back “identity politics.” But that is really a passive formulation: the issue is whether Sotomayor is committed to identity politics from the bench. Todd Gaziano from Heritage and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights explains: “Her shenanigans in [Ricci] indicates to me that she holds a wrongheaded view on the Equal Protection Clause and she’s embarrassed by it. . .Senators should explore every important area of constitutional law and whether judges take the Equal Protection Clause seriously or fictionally.”
If you needed another reason to oppose release of the Uighurs into the U.S. here is one: they really don’t like America.
Yuval Levin wonders why Democrats are now obsessing over cost containment as a selling point for nationalized healthcare: “Most bizarre of all, the administration talks about all this as a way to bring the broader entitlement problem under control. How exactly? The notion that entitlement costs will be brought under control by the creation of a vast new entitlement just doesn’t add up. Yet somehow the Democrats are the ones pushing the cost argument.”
Obama “pivots” on taxing health benefits. That would be, even for him, an astounding flip-flop. “‘For the first time in American history, he wants to tax your health benefits,’ Obama said in September. ‘Apparently, Senator McCain doesn’t think it’s enough that your health premiums have doubled. He thinks you should have to pay taxes on them, too.’ Strongly desiring to declare a health-care victory this year, Obama is now taking a more nuanced approach, aides said.” Gotta’ love those nuanced pivots.
Aaron David Miller is stumped too: “As President Obama heads to Saudi Arabia and Egypt this week, his strategy is not altogether clear. The logic appears to be to get Israel to freeze settlements, the Arab states to offer up partial normalization and together this will somehow get Israel and the Palestinians into a successful negotiation on the toughest issues — Jerusalem, borders and refugees. The president would presumably be prepared to lay out his own peace plan if necessary.To make this work, the sun, moon and the stars would need to align almost perfectly.” Yes, Obama could have an inkling for regime change or it could be another ill-conceived, half-baked idea like closing Guantanamo.
Unfortunately not an Onion story: “The federal government mistakenly made public a 266-page report, its pages marked “highly confidential,” that gives detailed information about hundreds of the nation’s civilian nuclear sites and programs, including maps showing the precise locations of stockpiles of fuel for nuclear weapons. The publication of the document was revealed Monday in an on-line newsletter devoted to issues of federal secrecy.” Just fills you with confidence that the government is taking on so many new and exciting responsibilities. Perhaps it should work on getting the existing stuff right.
Joe Biden speaks truth on the stimulus: ”There are going to be mistakes made. . .Some people are being scammed already.” Yeah, whatever.
Harry Reid gives know-nothingism a bad name: “I understand that during her career, she’s written hundreds and hundreds of opinions. I haven’t read a single one of them, and if I’m fortunate before we end this, I won’t have to read one of them.”
CBS News follows one of Rep. John Murtha’s scams. A defense contractor passing itself off as a charity? Yup.
Meanwhile the scandal spreads: “Chuck Brimmer has resigned as chief of staff to Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) after being served with a subpoena as part of the federal grand jury probe of the PMA Group, a now-defunct lobbying firm. The news came as Visclosky announced Tuesday that he is handing off control of the energy and water spending bill while the federal inquiry proceeds.”
And over in the Senate Dick Durbin has some explaining to do about a conversation with Blago. Aside from whatever was said why would any elected official have gotten on the phone with Blago?
“No frontrunner in GOP 2012 presidential race,” says the headline. Probably because there isn’t a race yet.
Michael Gerson sounds a note of caution on the president’s upcoming speech in Cairo: “Any presidential speech abroad has multiple audiences. One of them, in this case, is the Egyptian government, whose cooperation is needed on issues that range from proliferation to peace. But another audience will be dissidents and reformers in Egypt and beyond. And a president who does not speak boldly for their political rights — their democratic rights — has little useful to say to them.”
I was very publically against the original TARP bailout last Sept including any assistance to AIG. The original group of Republicans were correct to try to stop this;and McCain should have joined them. Once the bailout momentum starts;it becomes increasingly difficult to stop;JUST LIKE A PONZI SCHEME. However, it will stop,soon enough. (The politics are irrelevant,this has become a mathematical process.)
People are smart enough to know that the AIG bonuses, while digusting, are economically irrelevant. They are a rounding error at best. In the scheme of the trillions spent by government, which have already helped us dodge a depression, the bonuses are nothing more than a reminder that government needs to check the greed of Wall Street.
If the AIG bonuses are the biggest thing you can point to, in your argument that the government is incompetent, you are conceding that the government has been effective in 99.9% of its spending.
To most of the people who are not afflicted with Obama Derangement Syndrome, the AIG bonuses serve to reinforce that the culprits in this economic mess are Wall Street and big business and those who protect their wrongdoing through lax regulation and enforcement.
Barack’s best argument on the second point: “It’s not all government that is incompetent. It’s just us.”
The Hayekian truism about the government lacking information to run the economy retains its force.
But huge economic institutions like Citicorp and AIG seem no easier to run. True, there is some market discipline even for oligopolies, but on the record and in the end, large conglomerates seem to run into serious trouble, too.
Perhaps we need a much smaller scale, decentralized economy, even if that means forcing these huge entities to break up into more digestible particles.
What’s being underreported is how this whole fiasco is going to affect every lending institution around the country. Yesterday the Fed injected over $1 trillion into the economy in an attempt to increase lending – no one is borrowing right now and no one is lending.
If I’m a bank executive and I see the government stoking hatred and death threats toward bank executives, why would I start expanding my business and taking risks? And what if my bank was coerced into taking government money? I would stop all business completely.
And to think all of this is being drummed up by the White House in an attempt to move support for more government control over our economy, e.g. Teleprompter’s budget. These Leftists running our government could care less about our economic health – they want nothing but more power.
#5,”These Leftists running our government could care less about our economic health – they want nothing but more power.”
Correct,and the Capitalists who ran our Universe didn’t care about our economic health-they wanted nothing but more money.
avarice for power,avarice for money,symbiotic relationship.
“The Obama team can’t effectively manage a single troubled company without getting itself and the whole country tied up in knots.” That’s just a little bit ridiculous. This is no ordinary troubled company, and it’s silly to say otherwise.
Regardless, you have once again attributed the previous administration’s mistakes to the current one:
“The AIG mess revolves around a very simple issue: could the government have stopped the bonuses prospectively? … The AIG bonus issue is child’s play compared to devising a universal health care system that is simultaneously going to expand coverage, improve care, reduce cost, protect privacy, and digitize all our medical information.”
You argue that the Bush’s administration’s various failures during the initial bailout of AIG is proof that the current administration’s policies are doomed to fail.
Obama snatched a nice $500,000 bonus for himself before taking office. Of course, he’ll be giving the proceeds to his favorite charity…himself!
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/19/obamas-500000-book-bonanza/
Vast “swatches” of the economy? Perhaps “swaths” is what you meant?
It’s going to be great fun watching Republicans vote for a 90% tax on Wall Street bonuses. That is political gold.
The big questions are not being asked.
Where are the TARP funds that are going to AIG ending up? And when did the ultimate TARP fund recipients buy the AIG CDLs that are now being paid off at full value?
It would surprise me a lot if all of those CDLs sat in vaults and weren’t traded at below face value during the time when they were being considered “toxic assets.”
I agree with Grumpy Old Man – I would add, though, that there are mechanisms that deal with large business entities that are too unwieldly. Two concepts are competition and bankruptcy. When businesses like AIG fail, more robust and better-run competitors take up the slack. Legal protections such as bankruptcy can help in restructuring and easier means for downsizing and profitability.
The worst of all options is to have the government try to run these institutions. Government is motivated by politics, not economics. Government can make laws and raise taxes. Unlike AIG, if the government runs the country (or a business) into the ground, they can just levy new taxes, print more money, limit personal liberties and imprison political opponents. That’s not encouraging when you realize who is running the government right now.
Barack Obama’s teleprompter (TOTUS) has its own blog. It’s very clever. TOTUS doesn’t want to be thrown under the bus by POTUS so he defends himself and his boss. TOTUS is busy today being fed all the laugh lines for the Leno show:
http://baracksteleprompter.blogspot.com/
#6 said “Correct,and the Capitalists who ran our Universe didn’t care about our economic health-they wanted nothing but more money.
avarice for power,avarice for money,symbiotic relationship.”
There’s a big difference between greed for power (what the Left seeks) and greed for money, which you insinuate the Right seeks: lots of power only corrupts. It doesn’t throw off anything positive to people.
As opposed to people who make more money than you think they should. At least that money gets spent and helps stimulate the economy. And BTW, who the hell are you to say how much someone should earn? Are you and the rest of those in the COO (Cult of Obama) going to determine what’s “greedy” and what’s not? Obama said yesterday that Americans took “too much risk”. To those that weren’t quite clear that Obama is a socialist, that’s all you need to know.
#14,
I was referring to the derivative Masters who created vehicles to satisfy their greed that cratered everybody’s economy.
I can’t believe it, RCAR posted something I am in complete agreement with (post #1, only). Time to buy a lottery ticket!
Swath is the fourth definition of swatch in Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, so there
David (Re #2):
–”If the AIG bonuses are the biggest thing you can point to, in your argument that the government is incompetent, you are conceding that the government has been effective in 99.9% of its spending.”–
It concedes nothing of the kind.
You got your “BS” in Logic from The Department of Sophistry in the College of Political Correctness at Left-over University.
RCAR, Seth Swirsky’s point still applies. Greed for wealth does not necessarily require one to stymie or dominate others; there are lots of ways to get wealthy without harming others. In fact, the way to really get wealthy is to provide others with things they need or want, and the more ways people use to do that the wealthier the society as a whole becomes. Of course it is the mission of government to create and enforce laws that make sure the pursuit of wealth is carried out without force or fraud.
In the case of power, however, there are no ways to have it without taking it from others. If the local police have a rule that everyone goes on green and stops on red, then I don’t get to decide about that for myself. If government is deciding how much people are compensated, companies are not deciding. And when government is deciding, the decision is based on maximizing power, not on maximizing wealth.
#2, thanks for proving Jennifer’s point. If the “bonuses” are miniscule and the government can barely manage that, what makes you think that it can manage $14 trillion (the current value of the US economy)?
F.A. Hayek’s Fatal Conceit is alive and well.
I hope the Republican party is smart enough to push Ms. Rubin’s point in the coming months.
What I would like to know is why some businesses are bailed out and others are not? It speaks of some type of organized favoritism based on nothing more than ” I know these guys” as a reference. If anyone, and I know it won’t be this Congress, would dare to look into and publicly expose the extent of contributions both legal and under the table to Senators, Congressmen and other hired lackeys who have the elected officials ears, the result would be an exposure of how decisions are reached in Washington. And it has little to do with what is good for the nation, for constituents or the party. It’s all about greed and Congress shared a costarring role.
If this isn’t a situation that begs for term limits, what is?
If a business is too big to fail. It’s just too big and should be broken up (a la AT&T) or.. should never have been allowed to get so big.
To big to fail = to big. Period.
#23, a business can only get too big with the assistance of a willing government. I’m pretty sure if you look at all of the regulations passed over the years you will see something that grandfathers a lot of these big companies from being affected by the said regulation, and the new barrier prevents new entrants from coming into the market. As I’ve mentioned before in another thread, huge companies and government colluding with one another is the strongest impediment to capitalism.
“Obama’s mantra about collecting the “best and the brightest” for his cabinet was not just puffery. It was a message: we’re smarter than those fools who messed up the economy. We have the answers and can devise exquisitely refined solutions, with thousands of interconnected parts, to do what the “broken” free market system cannot. But how credible is that?”
Jennifer, where did you get the idea that Obama thinks he can correct decades of sickness in one smooth swing? He has repeatedly been honest that “mistakes will be made” in the recovery process, and that this recovery is going to take a long time. I did not like you making Obama out to be arrogant. If you want to see arrogance, look back a short time ago and President Cheney and Vice-President Bush (intentional mistake, ha).
#25, yes he even said we can stop the seas from rising. He said that government needed to correct the excesses, and his corrections are making it worse. He is getting ready to destroy the dollar and make us remember Jimmy fondly.
He is incompetent. A joke who is making foolish diplomatic errors of protocol that show he is eminently unqualified to hold the office to which he has been elected. I am enjoying hearing everyone start saying they were fooled. I wasn’t fooled. He does not believe in capitalism, he thinks he is smart enough to determine how everything should be ordered on every subject. I am enjoying watching his approval rankings fall faster than his predecessor’s did. Ha! Hope and change!
Everyone should stop writing about this Administration’s mistakes. This is exactly what the American people voted for. An extreme liberal with no leadership ability. A man with total disdain for founding principles of this country.
But it will be so cool to watch him on Leno tonight. What a disgrace.
Oh Horse2See, you are so funny and original!!! I notice you don’t really refute the arrogance charge and, considering BO’s rhetoric (not to mention how bent out of shape he gets when challenged), you’re wise not to.
Can I just eat my waffles?
Think I agree with those that say BO is incompetent though I worry some that he, like the quants on Wall Street, may simply not care about the damage done by his seeking absolute control ( money in their case). The former seems lees malignant in that context. And as to the 99% competent extrapolation- that’s horse manure. consider:
- he turned over the most important bill in US economic history to the two lunatics Nancy and Harry, and got gibberish in return- free condoms, mag/lev trains to Vegas, billions to the crooks at ACORN, etc.
- he proposes a cap and trade system which is estimated to cost the US consumer $2 Trillion in additional energy costs ( which goes to his govt for disposition) on the advice of such undisputed scientific stalwarts as the Goracle, who not only has a personal carbon footprint larger than any 1,000 of us, but also stands to make billions if we dogs eat his dogfood. Which maight be the most we can afford.
- he’s gutting the best military in the world ( though a bit worn) in the face of an increasingly dangerous world and his own increased commitment to Afghanistan.
-as to AIG, it is NOT true that the bonuses were a fait accompli before BO took over- they’ve had several bites at this apple since then. And, in any event, AIG was regulated by the genuises who run New York, not Bush, and the original bailout was headed by the Timmy The Tax Cheat, BOs main man.
We’ll wake up soon to even worse economic news, and even bigger debt burden, and a far lower lifestyle for ALL of us, just to satisfy the egos of those who think they’re smart enough to run it all for all of us. Good luck.
Obama Campaign: CHANGE you can count on.
Obama POTUS : FIASCO you can see.
Democrats … best described by a Politco writer, are engaging in a circular firing squad. You gotta love it. The Obama lead Democrat controlled government is a joke. Every day a new fiasco comes to light.
A few recent highlights:
Democrat Congress — signing legislation that protected bonuses to bailout recipients, then complaining about it.
Dodd — lying about explicitly allowing bonus to bailed out firm by including language in the stimulusbill.
Geithner — lying about just finding out about the bonuses.
Obama [via his WH staff] — lying about not pressuring Dodd
Obama — planning to force wounded vets to use personal health insurance, then flip-flopping the sameday.
Geithner + Obama Admin — Not knowing where the bailout money has gone
Geithner + Obama Admin — Allowing AIG to send bailout money to foreign firms they had done deals with.
Pelosi — Claiming lawful INS practices unAmerican before a group of illegal aliens.
Democrat Congress — Trying to pass laws to TAX the bonuses they authorized in violation of the Constitution.
Obama Admin — Planning to turn lose some terrorists held at GITMO on American soil.
Obama Admin + Federal Reserve — Buying One Trillion Dollars of notes from the Treasury with printed money!!!
These buffoons howled at the moon about AIG bonuses, only to find out that one of their own, Dodd [who initially LIED about it], pressured by the White House, put protection for bonuses in the stimulus bill. Perhaps these IDIOTS will now think it may make sense to read the legislation they are passing instead of using the Obama rubber stamp. Is someone cataloging the escapades of the Obama lead government that’s going to work for you?
The liberals called Bush an idiot. By comparison to CHANGE, he’s looking more and more like a genius every day.
Post #2, David:
You said: “People are smart enough to know that the AIG bonuses, while digusting, are economically irrelevant. They are a rounding error at best.”
By your logic, then a cop shooting a motorist on the side of the highway when he moves his hand to fast, is statistically irrelevant, too. Why bother to even investigate? It was much more than a rounding error when compared to all the thousands of law enforcements stops daily. Heck, the public is smart enough to know that the shooting is disgusting, but it happens so infrequently, the public shouldn’t get their panties in a wad about it.
Sure, compared to the trillions being thrown around now $100 million might appear insignificant, it is however, representational of how little foresight and oversight the Congress had when it passed this colossal spending package it a willy-nilly fashion. They proved they are little more than sheep and were stampeded by the sky is falling fear mongering by the Obama Administration. Sen. Christopher Dodd should be tarred and feathered — but liberals like you will dismiss his pandering to Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, et al, and likewise dismiss his crafting a neat little avenue to bonuses to be doled out to failed companies executives. Congress is inept, Dodd is for sale to the highest bidder and thus corrupt, and you sir, are a person unconcerned with morality and ethics. You only care when it is “significant.” We are getting what we deserve as a nation because the nation is populated by moral relativists like you.
F. Hayek’s Road to Serfdom, should be required reading for the entire population of this country. It doesn’t matter one iota, both Republicans and Democrats, and in fact any group of people are incapable of controlling any portion of our economy. It’s just too complicated. Unless we are prepared as a country to surrender our individual liberty and take our marching orders from the state, government must get out of the way and let the market take care of the economy.
Isn’t it a bit ironic. Socialism, and the idea of an economic system controlled by government has fallen into disrepute everywhere; and well it should. Socialism has wreaked havoc wherever it has been applied. Ask anyone who must depend on the Canadian or British socialized medical system; those who can go elsewhere for treatement do so; often comming here. But here in the land of opportunity we have elected an inexperienced left wing politician from a political sewer who wants to bring us all the blessings of Socialism that have proven disasterous everywhere else. Go figure.
The AIG bonus issue is almost irrelevant. The biggest story of the day that went almost unreported was the 1 trillion dollar injection of capital by the govertnment. This is going to be a much bigger problem than the bonus money. As onerus as the bonus money is we are watching the possible collapse of the American dollar. Look at it like this, everytime there is a problem our government prints more money and spends it. It’s like pumping up an innertube and when it’s full instead of stopping we keep on pumping, pretty soon we sprout a leak but instead of patching and stopping, we patch and pump some more. This tube is going to explode some day with that kind of mentality just like our monetary system.
This is what we get for electing a man who HASN’T DONE ANYTHING. Obama has no record of accomplishing a single successful public initiative in his entire career. We knew it and we blew it. I didn’t like to cast my vote for John McCain because he and I do not share fundamentals ideologies. But I am so happy that I am one of those who can stand up and say, “Don’t look at me…I didn’t vote for Obama!”
AIG was up nearly 18 percent today to $1.62 per share. I might just by 10,000 shares and see if I can get my taxes back when AIG eventually returns to it’s core business as an insurer and not a hedge fund.
Jimmy Obama is giving us a whole new level of inexperience, ineptness, and corruption for a new President in his first 100 days. We now have reason to strongly suspect that Democrats like higher taxes because other people pay them while they cheat on them. We’ve now know why Obama broke his promise to post bills online so everybody could read them before they were voted on…He and Sen Dodd each took $100K of AIG money and inserted a little guarantee for AIG Executives in the supposed stimulous bill to insure they got their muli-million dollar bonuses. No wonder Obama blamed the Republicans so furiously for not voting for the bill. The Democrats look corrupt, stupid, or both for voting for the bill and the guarantee while the Republicans have every right to tell the country it isn’t partisan to say no to corruption, especially when you aren’t even given time to read what the corruption is! And of course there the almost 9000 corrupt earmarks Jimmy Obama promised to end and that he signed into law. There’s more, but not enough time or space to list all the pecadillos of Jimmy Obama…but stay tuned…he’s got 4 more years!
Jennifer is right on message: Obama must fail. He has already failed. Everything about him is failure. Failure. Failure. Failure. Then Jennifer succeeds.
The markets clearly were not quite as smart as many people made them—and still want to make them–out to be. Frankly, I’ll take Obama’s strategic vision and the mandate from the country’s voters to make substantial changes over the people who are so out of touch both philosophically and figuratively from the problems of the country. That apparently includes Republicans, of which I used to be a member.
“Correct,and the Capitalists who ran our Universe didn’t care about our economic health-they wanted nothing but more money. ”
RCar…19% economic growth over Bush’s 8 years as President…I had a job, a forward looking 401K and “safe” investments in solid companies when the DJIA wasn’t falling like a rock everytime an anti-capitalist moron opened his mouth. Money is good, economic growth is good…unemployment is bad. Stop blaming Bush and lay responsibility for this mess where it belongs – Barney Frank and Chris Dodd.
And, as far as BO is concerned…maybe he should worry less about late night comedy shows, and brackets for the basketball chamiponships and a little more about the fluctuation DJIA and the average Americans ability to find a job that feeds their family. His policies won’t work as he’s repeating the regulatory actions of Nixon and the economic mistakes of LBJ and Carter. Perhaps you might choose to pick up a history book and learn something before you shoot your mouth off next time.
The children are running the economy. Shame on the moderate Republicans who voted for this poser, the victor in the hope over common sense sweepstakes.
Obama’s hubris will be his downfall. If only he put as much thought into understanding basic economics as he does filling out his NCAA brackets……
Just kickin’ back, fishing and watching the meltdown in Flyover Country. Enjoy your new president!
The best thing said here by the many with comments is this:
And to think all of this is being drummed up by the White House in an attempt to move support for more government control over our economy, e.g. Teleprompter’s budget. These Leftists running our government could care less about our economic health – they want nothing but more power…..
Yes… it is a power and control game… and most of us normal folks loss…. and we voted them in… we need to not vote by how well they do on TV but on real life past issues they have solved … but yes… our media will never get that deep or let any one but their left leaning agenda get any real press coverage…. and too many will buy the well marketed left machine.. even if empty or with solutions that will destroy… we are digging our owe grave here… we are all to busy to take the real time to be involved and make the whole work…
on a side note… without God in our lives our standards become less and less and more and more selfish nature…. and our Government becomes a form of God… it is here to save us… but the truth is …. it can’t… no government is able to save when the whole starts to fall apart…. I guess we will all have to suffer before we wake up and start a new and put God back in the picture… and standards too….
Hey 10, there are WAY more Democrats on Wall Street than Republicans. Republicans are on Main Street. They’re called entrepreneurs and small business owners. Wall Street likes government involvement. It creates distortions in markets, which gthey take advantage of, then it protects the wealthy and powerful. Heck, just look at the make up of the Senate (and billionaire Nancy Pelosi for that matter). Republicans want the government to leave them alone so they can build their buisnesses. Oh yeah, and create jobs. You sound like you get your information from the 6 o’clock news.