The Associated Press says that Samantha Power, a top Obama foreign policy advisor who was dismissed during the campaign for making remarks about Hillary Clinton is back in a foreign policy job. She expected to play a major role in diplomacy and will probably interact with Hillary, a woman she called a “monster”.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Samantha Power, the Harvard University professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author who earned notoriety for calling Hillary Rodham Clinton a “monster” while working to elect Barack Obama president, will take a senior foreign policy job at the White House, The Associated Press has learned.
Officials familiar with the decision say Obama has tapped Power to be senior director for multilateral affairs at the National Security Council, a job that will require close contact and potential travel with Clinton, who is now secretary of state. NSC staffers often accompany the secretary of state on foreign trips.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Power’s position, as well as that of other senior NSC positions, have not yet been announced. One official said the announcements would be made in the near future.
White House officials would not provide details of Power’s new role.
The rehabilitation of Samantha Power now that it is no longer necessary to maintain appearances was an inevitability waiting to happen. The President’s qualms about her suitability for a responsible position, if ever he had them, lasted only as long as it might cost him votes. They do not seem to be rooted in any reservations about Power’s character or competence, since neither have changed materially in the last few months. Power was acceptable before her remarks about Clinton; she became unacceptable for a brief period, and is now eminently qualified again to bring Hope and Change into the world.
There is almost no one to feel sorry in this affair for except for those who genuinely believed that the expressions of regret, outrage and banishment were anything but feigned. Hillary Clinton might well be what Samantha Power described her as; and Power ought to know. Barack Obama for his part, has managed to out Hillary Hillary and out Power Power. They deserve each other. The only question is whether the voters deserve them.
Now she ain’t, now she is! Telling ya, it was a false bottom!
a job that will require close contact and potential travel with Clinton, ["that monster!"]
No doubt that would be a spectacle. Almost seem as that is on purpose. Keep them busy exchanging sparks.
See discussion re WH power and the Cabinet. Hillary as SecState means nothing. Power is the new Kissinger.
Just another data point.
There’s a recent Karl Rove article about how Dear Leader has multiplied the West Wing staff from the 60 of the GWB years to 160. Rove’s old office has been separated into four cubicles.
Many senior staff members referred to as czars have job descriptions that mimic those of the cabinet positions. Either Dear Leader’s visible cabinet picks are a public relations facade and the policy making power will be vested in invisible people, or Dear Leader is intentionally creating parallel power centers to encourage infighting and discourage a palace coup that could steal public adoration from the throne.
The Samantha Powers appointment seems to fit the latter. Powers is a darling of the transnational chattering class and the perfect foil to snipe at any muscularity that Hilary might show as Sec State. According to Powers the primary role of the US Military is to hand out UN aid packages.
Somebody needs to remind the general public why she is not a good choice. Other than the remark about Clinton, and her book, “A Problem From Hell”, I don’t remember much about her general outlook. I vaguely remember some sentiments that may not exactly be thought of as friendly towards Israel, but I don’t remember specifics.
“visible cabinet picks are a public relations facade and the policy making power will be vested in invisible people, or Dear Leader is intentionally creating parallel power centers to encourage infighting and discourage a palace coup that could steal public adoration from the throne.”
FDR left the lines of authority and responsibility between his subordinates fuzzy,except cabinet positions,which were/are defined by tradition,law and the Constitution.
On the other hand,FDR was a supremely gifted Machiavellian manipulator who relished the game at all levels.
Co-opting his most dangerous rival into his cabinet may seem very clever at first look,but it puts a crocodile in his living room.
Does anyone think,or seen,that O has the force of character and political skills to keep such self serving egos as Clinton,Emmanual and especially Holbrooke on leashes?
What,exactly,does Clinton get out being SecState,especially if it’s reduced to a mere ceremonial position?
Does Holbrooke still covet that office?
What more scandals will Emmanuel bring with him?
IMHO,Obama himself was never a power in the Chicago machine,he was,basically,a front man,the respectable,electable face of the Machine.
There has been much discussion of late (both at BC and elsewhere) of the problem of moral hazard in financial markets. Basically, if you protect investors and managers from the consequences of bad decisions, it will encourage reckless risk taking in the future.
What we are seeing with the rehabilitation of Samantha Power is a perfect example of moral hazard in a non-financial context. She called a major candidate for the Democratic nomination a “monster.” Outrage ensued, and she was deposited under the bus.
Now, like a scene out of Speed, she has scratched and clawed herself back up into the bus. And, ironically, she now has the potential to be more influential on issues that matter to her (the sole test of value in such matters) than the “monster” herself.
So what exactly is the price of irresponsible behavior? And without having to bear the consequences of her actions, what is going to restrain her from future outrages? And who is the next person to get rehabilitated?
Moral hazard: a hazard to us all.
L3
I hope regarding the Middle East, that in her heart of hearts, whomever Powers would really back, will lose. Funny I dont think thats Israel. Go Israel. I wonder how long it will take for the obambi administration to make, not liking, the arabs a hate crime. I think millions of us, should every day, go online and find a pro terrorist site, the NYT for instance, and just say things to piss them off. Even if the leaders put on a happy face for the west, the arab street still hates us, dont ever forget that. What ceasar said..I dont care if they hate us, as long as they fear us.
“0″ says “it is day” while the sun shineth not, and the whole world says “Amen” for those with eyes wide open will not know the truth and those that know the truth will not understand for the truth is now a lie and lies are still lies, how can the truth be kown, confusion will reign and all will tremble with fear…who will know the truth, only the dead, for others the worst has not yet come.
Leo, moral hazard is in the eye of the beholder. Power may only seem a moral hazard to you, me and like minded people. She may not seem a moral hazard to President Obama.
Objectively, who really knows whether she is or is not a moral hazard, but it will not take too many months of this sort of Chicago-way politics to twist things into pretzels. It will be hard for we simple civilians to understand as the News People will cover and rationalize for everything that the Obama Administration says and does. But I see their rationalizations getting weirder and weirder as time goes on. We will need a special decoder ring to figure out what is really going on.
AS a group, the voters deserve this.
I, unfortunately, don’t.
Sigh… I wish I could say I didn’t see this coming. It was her anti-Israel / anti-Semitic remarks which first caught my attention during the election.
Of course, that’s like a bonus in the modern Democratic party, so Power only really got in trouble when she had the gall to utter publicly what we all are thinking privately. In making the decision to bring her back into the fold after disowning her, it’s unsettling to see how little credit Obama gives the American public. Perhaps more unsettling to realize no one will call him on it.
The only question is whether the voters deserve them.
Well, Wretchard, thanks for taking it easy on us today. After the last couple of weeks, I, for one, need to take it easy.
Samantha Power married Cass Sunstein in July of last year. Sunstein was recently appointed as Obama’s “regulatory czar:”
The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs might sound like a remote bureaucratic outpost, but since the Reagan presidency it has influenced federal efforts to protect the public from unsafe food, dangerous chemicals, polluted air, climate change and workplace hazards.
That’s because the office reviews any major regulatory idea that comes from an executive branch agency. Business lobbyists already are applauding Sunstein’s nomination, hoping he might slow the march back to aggressive regulation under the new Democratic administration.
Power supports a Palestinian state and “armed intervention into humanitarian crisis situations” [wiki], which is arguably her most controversial policy position.
I’m sure that the WaPo Style section will gush over the “New Power Couple in Washington”, Samantha and Cass.
“Armed intervention into humanitarian crisis situations”; won’t that put us at odds with the government of Sudan, Myanmar, etc.? Can you say Indonesia and East Timor? How about Sri Lanka and the Tamil rebels. This could get to be a long list. Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe?
What kind of fresh Hell cowboy diplomacy is this ?
Before she was thrown over the bus for dissing Evita ,Samantha Power ,working as a foreign policy adviser to Obama ,suggested that his campaign promises on Iraq might not fully guide his actions as president.
Now the old grey lady is reporting that indeed his campaign promises have met Reality Road.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/us/politics/29prexy.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss
So…uhhhh…..is she sleeping with Soros or isn’t she?
well that would be a New Direction in foreign policy.
Per a prior thread Wretchard posted yesterday about the staffing arrangements at the White House, which seems to undermine the cabinet positions that are very public and supposedly strike a centrist pose, bringing in Samantha Power under the radar is something that fits the pattern and close observers are not at all fooled by. Humbly, I claim to have assimilated enough information about Obama to claim that I knew this would happen.
Powell’s hatred of Israel and Jews is legendary. What is curious is her marriage to… a Jooooooooo! There are more contradictions in how the Obama administration is shaping up that you can shake a stick at. If I were Benjamin Netanyahu I would be very worried over this development. But, then again, it might do Israel some good to get a spine and flip the U.S. the expression finger. Can one just imagine the rage of Power and Obama if and when Israel does this? LOL! Go Bibi!
Obama is not making “Machiavellian Decisions” on the order of FDR, or even on the order of the folks that own your local Dry Cleaners. He is not making meaningful decisions at all. It is a coterie of Dem insiders, Professional Marxists, Tranzis and Lord knows what other devils that are a calling the shots. A fifth rate Chicago politician does not have these skills. Obama has managed nothing in hs life other than his rhetoric and his public persona. He did not even mange his campaign. We may never know who the real puppet masters are.
This is not some divide and conquer management technique, this is a shadow cabinet — but i be it is not the the real decision makers.
Who benefits from this appointment of Powers, well it is the international socialist/tranzi crowd.
Heavens to Betsy, you had Putin piping up the other day a Davos putting out the treasonous notion that “The International Community” should directly manage the Fed. Just outrageous. What hubris this whole crowd is possessed with!
It does not matt3er that Powers in a Harvard educated nitwit with unicorns and kitty cats running around in her pea brain, or that her vanity and not that pea brain that guides her. She, like her whole milieu has the deepest hatred for every thing about us. She surely holds that Chavez is a “visionary” and GWB as a cretinous and evil devil. Upside down, inside out; Perverted and perverse. She cannot help herself, she cannot not do anything but betray us. She knows no other thing.
What long term damage are these people going todo? What signals will they send? What secrets will they tell? What villains will they infiltrate into the system? Who will they betray? What hideous decisions will they make?
The whole lot of them are monsters. Heaven help us for we cannot seem to help ourselves. At this point in time it is the absolute worse thing we could do to have these people up there. Is there any beliefs that these people hold that are in concert the real interests of this nation? Even one?
This will be interesting. The thing about Hillary is, every time she smiles, I wonder, where’s the knife? I think she’s a patriot, but she’s also a determined seeker of power, and the SOS position is a ticket to nowhere politically. I think she sees where this administration is heading foreign policy-wise and at some point she is going to resign. It will be a principled stand over something substantial (Powers wants us to invade Sudan – that’s a possibility but there are others). She’ll regret it, o yes, but it will be for the good of the country and the sake of her conscience, and it will set her up to oppose Obama in 2012. It ain’t over till it’s over.
Well, at least half the voters (living, dead and imaginary) deserve them. The rest of us will have to duck and cover.
My greatest hope is that this sort of schizophrenic staffing will cause a complete lock-up leaving the middle level bureaucrats to muddle along to the next election cycle. They aren’t great, but they know better than to burn down the house, unlike the ideolouges in the WH.
mongoose – I have to go to work, so there isn’t time to properly respond. But take heart. It’s still our country. Yes, they will do a lot of damage, they already have, and after that idiotic invitation to the Muslim world to take us back to relations of 30 years ago I fear for the safety of our people everywhere much, much more than I did only a few weeks ago. But right now our greatest enemy is despair. Remember Tolkien – we keep fighting, even if we believe we’ve already lost. And we honor the things we fight to preserve by remembering to enjoy them, and our great good fortune in knowing what they are.
Fred,
I think you’re right. Isn’t it all a bit, well… creepy? Augustus’s Rome smoke-and-mirrors kind of creepy? Centrists in high-level spots as a facade, while the real power rests behind the scenes.
I would also note a consistent theme animating many of Obama’s high level picks: outright anti-Israel tendencies or at least very sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. As the Democrats draw closer and closer to Arab and Muslim extremists, it will be harder and harder for even liberal Jews to ignore the obvious. Maybe the era of O will be begin the exodus of Jews leaving the Democratic party. It’s something to hope for.
As exhelodvr and Anton observed, ALL the voters get exactly what half of them deserve! They made our bed and now we all have to lie in it.
As for Obama’s first moves politically and organizationally, I see some real amateurism that bodes quite ill for him. His absurdly limp attempt at bipartisanship (meeting with Republicans only long enough to rub their noses in it) will not stand the BS test when the stimulus bill flops as the same old ****. The bill is increasingly unpopular as it’s full ineffectual horror becomes apparent and the Democrats are stuck with sole authorship. His White House staff organization sounds absurdly uncontrollable, with the potential to erupt in an outright circus. His early foreign policy moves seem designed to unilaterally abandon valuable bargaining chips (Gitmo for the Euros and Missile Defense with the Russians) while apologizing to the Middle East (via Al Arabiya) for US victories in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We’ve seen it all before: the empty liberal rhetoric, the organizational muddle, the stale policies, the pork barrel payoffs, the international moves signaling weakness and lack of confidence. It’s 1977 all over again, folks, and James Earl Carter’s Second Term. Thank Heaven there is no Soviet Union for him to face.
As a corollary to “Too big to fail”, it should also be said about some people and organizations that they can be “Too vain to admit error.”
Otherwise, I think we all need to take a chill pill. 1 week down, 207 weeks to go of the Obama administration. At this rate, I think some of us are going to go totally apoplectic and bust a gasket.
Israel is in a LOT of trouble. it is coordinated –see news [ turkey Israel ].
Also, O on tv now issuing three new executive orders re federal contractors and unions –stand by –here comes another market blow –
Also see [ cbs israel ] in your news aggregator –recent 60 minutes attack on Israel treating the politics as if no terrorism nor wars nor intifadas ever existed –down the memory hole, leaving only Merkovas rolling over Pali babies in sight.
Good Lord a mighty. Storm is brewing faster and faster.
How, especially when traveling together, will these two highly political, in the domestic policy venue, antagonistic women present to foreign governments? Will the message be consistent? Will our messages of state serve national interests or will it be crafted for future domestic political gain? Does anyone believe that any of the islamic rulers, machismo dictators or outright monsters, will give them any credence?
I think the answers are all negative.
Question to Wretchard. Can a Machiavalian approach of having every conceivable position covered under the White House roof work in today’s media environment, which is quite different from FDR’s time? It’s so much easier now for those inside the administration whose views are ignored to leak them to a media outlet of their choosing. If this is indeed the case, it would seem to be a very difficult game to control from the top. And very different from their campaign where consistency of message (as non-specific as it was) won the day.
Hoskins: What is the Chinese pictograph for war?
mongoose, is this it?
The problem with most con artists is that they have an unfailing and irrational belief that they can keep on conning the same mark over and over again and that their victims will never learn. I would guess that Obama offered Hillary the job of Secretary of State in our to mollify the Clintonista wing of the Democratic Party, with the intention of later rooting her out. The Samantha Power appointment is probably just the first slap in the face in a series of moves calculated to make her resign. The Democrats promised more transparency in government, and thats what we’re getting, but not in the sense that they were talking about. Their ulterior motives are getting more and more transparent all the time. If any substantial portion of the MSM ever turns on their current idols then the outrage of the electorate may be unprecedented.
Buddy: Ooouuch! That’s trouble alright, and no urban legend either.
Let 1k cupcakes bloom.
Question to Wretchard. Can a Machiavalian approach of having every conceivable position covered under the White House roof work in today’s media environment, which is quite different from FDR’s time?
In a previous post, I wrote that the real political war in the coming months would be within the Left, not Right vs Left; an argument between buzzards, not between the buzzards and the prostrate victim who unfortunately poor conservative leadership has gotten into that state. This was in connection with David Horotwitz’s plea to take sides in the Left vs Left wars in order to prevent a single faction from dominating. Classic balance of power. It seemed like a good analysis at the time.
Right now I don’t know this pat analysis is true or even whether there’s a stable way to look at things any longer. My intuition is that we are in a period of great flux; where no one, not even Obama, is in control. I think Obama understands this, even revels in it. He is the ultimate opportunist, determined to keep profiting in political terms from the storms we are entering. But many, I think, are still waiting for a return to stability and are simply waiting for things to settle down. We are in unpredictable times, in the nonlinear part of the model and my fear is that we’re still acting like we are in the stable parts of the system, lost amidst the schemers and plotters. That’s why the Republicans seem strangely passive. They don’t want to play the Machiavelli game, at least not wholeheartedly.
But it isn’t necessary to become Machiavellian to understand that we can’t stand around like deer in the headlights. The only thing to do in such uncertain times is to a) rebuild leadership; b) shorten our decision loops. Otherwise we will just be borne along by the tides.
Ms. Power does have certain attributes that Mrs. Clinton lacks. I think that we are looking at a potential cat fight that will spark a full out bureaucratic war between the White House and the State Department. Pass the popcorn.
“”"”"”"”10. exhelodrvr:
AS a group, the voters deserve this.
I, unfortunately, don’t.”"”"”"”"
Amen.
Re blowing gaskets only a week in, all i can say is, if an offstage but really center stage megalo currency crisis instigator licking his chops at our only non-crisis the Dollar doesn’t bother us, and a mideast diplomatic and nat’l security corp filling up with anti-Israels isn’t electrocuting our antennae, what about a cold blooded old war-starter as envoy to P…P…Pakistan?
Wretchard you might add c) stop reacting and take the offensive.
(on at least one front)
Obamarx just handed out 20 million to Hamas?
The Obama administration on Friday made an emergency contribution of more than $20 million for urgent relief efforts in the Gaza Strip, a day after the United Nations launched a flash appeal for $613 million to help Palestinians recover from Israel’s three-week military operation there.
The State Department said President Barack Obama had authorized the use of $20.3 million from the U.S. Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance Fund for humanitarian assistance to the 1.4 million Palestinians in Gaza.
They pretend this money will be going through the UN, but there will be no accounting for for it and you can bet a good chunk of it, if not most, will go to Hamas for purchases of new toys.
Power is certain to force Obama to invade Israel and destroy it to install Hamas. Given Obama’s Muslim background and sympathies this is a goal he shares with her.
It would certainly find favor among Democrats, who think that if we just destroy Israel Muslims will like us. It’s a very female oriented vision, the desire to be liked, and curry favor from killers.
It’s likely to prove a disaster. It might even be one of the factors leading to Obama’s impeachment. He’s certainly pro-Jihad, pro-Sharia, and pro-Islam. Powers is part of that.
Mongoose said:
“The whole lot of them are monsters. Heaven help us for we cannot seem to help ourselves. At this point in time it is the absolute worse thing we could do to have these people up there. Is there any beliefs that these people hold that are in concert the real interests of this nation? Even one?”
Nope, not one. We’re screwed. The interesting question is whether or not the current system can survive Obama.
Tcobb said:
“I would guess that Obama offered Hillary the job of Secretary of State in our to mollify the Clintonista wing of the Democratic Party, with the intention of later rooting her out. The Samantha Power appointment is probably just the first slap in the face in a series of moves calculated to make her resign.”
It’s virtually guaranteed that the Islamic fascists or Vladimir Putin or a Black Swan will play a significant trick in the next 4 years. Our Dear Leader will need someone to blame and toss under the bus after the trick is played. Hillary was chosen for the honor. I guess Hillary is sufficiently self confident (or deluded) that she thinks she and her husband can deal with this future crisis and thus position herself for the 2012 presidential election.
People like Samantha Powers are being situated to take over after Hillary gets jettisoned. The people behind Obama are playing this like a chess game.
Power is the real face of Obama. The sad thing is that Jews are still emailing around the chain lists of Jews BHO appointed, not all of whom are really jewish, and hoping that he is really going to be OK. I hope that someone is around to write a good history of this in 50 years.
“”"”"”"”(Powers wants us to invade Sudan – that’s a possibility but there are others).”"”"”"”"”
I don’t know if that is true or not, as you may have read something I’m not aware of, but — if true — you should add that “She wants us to invade the Sudan ineffectively.”
I always marvel at the chatering class’s notion of how to do “humanitarian” military action, since their way of doing such things never saves any victims from slaughter.
“”"”"”Power is certain to force Obama to invade Israel and destroy it to install Hamas. Given Obama’s Muslim background and sympathies this is a goal he shares with her.”"”"”"”
Slow down, Whiskey. You need to ease up on drinking your namesake.
RR: They just want to fly into a fake “hot zone” wearing khaki with the cameras rolling. Oh get so shots of the “victims” on their Iphones.
I worry what she and some of the other appologists will do with the intelligence they recieve.
agree w/ RR –we should take counsel of our fears very carefully, as there’s plenty of objective problems rising and we need to hang onto credibility.
This is politics, folks… and rapprochement is very likely between people who contended during a campaign. The instigation to infighting is a lot more likely to be the active defensiveness of Emmanuel amplified by an extensive staff all bent on being in the favor of the king. Little tiffs like those between Clinton and Powers are usually not the stuff they’re made out to be. They may even end up as allies.
But then, maybe I’m just in denial.
h/t instapundit “Are Libertarians & Conservatives In a Fight For Their Lives?”
…and really, Dan Riehl only touches a scratch on the top of the surface.
It’s getting worse day by day.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is extremely frustrated with orders that the White House is contemplating. According to sources at the Pentagon, including all branches of the armed forces, the Obama Administration may break with a centuries-old tradition.
A spokesman for General James Cartwright, the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, states that the Obama Administration wants to have soldiers and officers pledge a loyalty oath directly to the office of the President, and no longer to the Constitution.
“The oath to the Constitution is as old as the document itself.” the spokesman said, “At no time in American history, not even in the Civil War, did the oath change or the subject of the oath differ. It has always been to the Constitution.”
The back-and-forth between the White House and the Defense Department was expected as President George W. Bush left office. President Obama has already signed orders to close Guantanamo and to pull combat troops from Iraq. But, this, say many at the Defense Department, goes to far.
“Technically, we can’t talk about it before it becomes official policy.” the spokesman continued. “However, the Defense Department, including the Secretary, will not take this laying down. Expect a fight from the bureaucracy and the brass.”
Sources at the White House had a different point of view. In a circular distributed by White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, the rationale for the change was made more clear.
“The President feels that the military has been too indoctrinated by the old harbingers of hate: nationalism, racism, and classism. By removing an oath to the American society, the soldiers are less likely to commit atrocities like those at Abu Ghraib.”
“We expect a lot of flak over this,” ! the clas sified memo continues. “But those that would be most against it are those looking either for attention or control.”
The time frame for the changes are unknown. However, it is more likely that the changes will be made around the July 4th holiday, in order to dampen any potential backlash. The difference in the oath will actually only be slight. The main differences will be the new phrasing. It is expected that the oath to the Constitution will be entirely phased out within two years.
Obama Administration wants to have soldiers and officers pledge a loyalty oath directly to the office of the President, and no longer to the Constitution.
This has to be a spoof. Even Dear Leader’s unbounded ego could not contemplate such a move.
Are we sure that this is not a hoax?
2×4; blackfive is reporting that as false, they usualy have the correct info on military matters.
http://www.blackfive.net/main/2009/01/oaths-changing.html
Good pick up. It seems now to be a hoax.
No gaskets popping today.
And it looks like they finally found a job for Holbrooke. All is well. Maybe Gergen will get hired next week to be the Obama ambassador to the Republicans, since they apparently don’t get on too well with Rahm Emmanuel. Now witness the power of this fully operational Obama Administration. Poof.
OK,back on your heads.
#32 buddy larsen
As best my meager and mostly forgotten knowledge of written Chinese can recall, that is not the character for “war”, but is …. wait for it … part of the two character phrase for “booty” or “contraband”. I will grant that if my teachers looked like that, I would have studied my calligraphy more thoroughly.
On a more serious note, I have been pondering. In life, the past is prologue. What happens, especially in matters of character and behaviour, does indicate what is to come. With rare exceptions, people do not change what they are, nor do they “reform” from the dark side.
While it is usually better to ascribe to stupidity actions which we would normally attribute to malice; in matters of state that does not necessarily hold. Regardless of one’s opinion of a newly risen political power’s beliefs; the fact that they have risen indicates a level of cunning and planning that is not stupid. Thus it is not unreasonable to default to a belief in malice, if their actions have a consistency that surpasses random errors in the process of mastering a new job.
I submit that it is possible to read into the actions of the last week and a few days some signs that are disturbing.
We knew that we were not going to like much or most of what he did. The soothing voices of the Vichy Republicans at the top of the party notwithstanding, there is reason to look beyond individual acts.
What restrains the actions of a politician? There is the sense of how much opposition might be mustered against the act. There is, in some cases, a reverence for the Law and Constitution. In most cases, the restraint is more aptly described as a fear of the Law and Constitution. There is, under our previous dispensation, a fear of what the voters may do in reaction to you. And there is a fear of what political rivals may do in response to your actions.
In politics, as in diplomacy, there is an etiquette, a formalism; ways of signalling that you are staying inside the bounds of custom and the law and not resorting to force. Keep in mind Clausewitz’s very accurate dictum about the relationship between politics and war.
As I have noted here and in other forums; every society has some form of politics. Be it feudal, communist, fascist, or democracy; it is the accepted way in that society of allocating resources and power short of whatever that society considers to be an excessive use of force. It works for that society. If politics breaks down, the sole alternative is the original arbiter of Kings, brute force and death, until a new order is established.
No matter what society; it has that etiquette and a breach of it, especially deliberate and consistent breaches of it, are indicative of the breakdown of the existing political system …. with threatening implications.
In a Constitutional representative democracy, the etiquette involves not burning bridges unintentionally. One does not make mortal enemies of political opponents because in a span of 2-4 years in our case; they may be in charge and you may be at their, or their followers’ political mercy.
The terms of reference used between Senators are more reminiscent of a monarch’s court or a house of feudal lords than part of a democracy, specifically to avoid giving such offense that in past times could lead to private armies fighting.
One basic principle in both politics and leadership is that when dealing with subordinates [even if they are really not subordinates, but you just regard them as such] you praise them publicly, and rebuke them privately. Part of the essence of leadership is to convince others that they are your colleagues, not your serfs. If you publicly humiliate others, you probably have created mortal enemies. That is one of the most basic rules, that even the most incompetent Chicago Democrat/Mafioso hack has to live by.
You only publicly humiliate those who you believe have absolutely no power to gain revenge in the future. One simply does not lightly stockpile a store of opponents for no reason.
Look at what we have seen in the first 10 days. This country as a whole does not think kindly [to put it mildly]of militant Islam and terrorists. What was Hussein Pasha’s first phone call once he entered the White House? He called the terrorist leader of the Palestinian Authority, Abu Mazen. His first formal television interview was not with an American network, or even a Western network. It was with Al-Arabiya, and was couched in terms that were just short of submission. Our tame media did not print the full transcript, but it is available if you look.
There is an interesting media conflict in progress. On Drudge there is a link to a January 29 article from THE GUARDIAN, where State Department officials have leaked that a letter offering concessions and friendship to Iran is being drafted. THE TIMES OF LONDON has a January 30 article saying that Obama is claiming that no concessions are being made. Europeans are worried at being stabbed in the back after half-heartedly supporting sanctions if the US reverses course. Someone in Washington is lying.
On the domestic front, he has established an intricate shadow government of “Czars” undercutting the authority of the Cabinet heads, who are the only ones under Congressional oversight. But then again, if Congress is a toothless rubber stamp …..
On the economic front, his version of “bipartisan dialog” is to publicly, very publicly to tell Republicans that “I won”, and to tell them that he did not have to consider anything they say. Partially as a result of that, he got no Republican cover on his looting of the Treasury in the House, and there is a possibility that he will only get McCain and the usual RINO suspects to support it in the Senate. His response has been to publicly unleash his uniquely permanent personal political movement, “Barack Obama 2.0″ [who proudly wear buttons calling themselves 'Obama Youth'] to lobby and threaten Republican Senators to get on board.
Since November 4, a number of commentators, myself included, have worried if there will be real elections in 2010 and beyond. Our basis for that worry has been his long and ongoing association with Marxists, terrorists, and racists; along with his expressed on video contempt for the Constitution, and separately for the mass of the middle class population [bitter clingers, etc.] This is reinforced by the electoral irregularities under the auspices of both Obama and the Democratic Party. When you add the acts of contempt cited above, and then add in this latest deliberate public snub to Hillary Clinton, which will surely infuriate her and her adherents in the Democrats; it appears that Hussein Pasha literally does not care about the reactions of those he insults, and has no fear of any reprisals in the future.
I may be wrong, but I think what we are seeing in this pattern is a belief that he will not ever be held accountable in the future for anything that he does. He fears no political opponent of the right or left. He does not believe that he will ever be voted out of office [and Rep. Serrano of NY has introduced a bill to repeal presidential term limits in the Constitution].
Despite his self-anointed god-like status, in a representative democracy as laid out in our Constitution, everyone faces the voters. He consistently acts as if that is not something he has to ever worry about, in ways that are blatant violations of the customs that define our polity. He seems to view himself to be accountable to no one and nothing; voters, laws, or the Constitution. Which is an indication that we have something to worry about.
I think it is time for our worry to become serious concern. There is an Oath that in play here, and it may have to be defended. I offer another marker to look for.
Democratic members of Congress, and members of Hussein Pasha’s administration keep raising the possibility that members of the Bush adminstration will be tried for “Crimes Against Humanity”, basically for not doing what the Democrats wanted. If there is even the hint of the beginning of any sort of proceeding against former officials not based in allegations of specific violations of specific statutes; an irremediable breach will have occurred. It will mean that Hussein Pasha’s regime can never, ever allow itself to lose power, because they know that payback will be merciless.
It will mean that the Oath will have to be defended. It may be Thermopylae, it may be Merriam’s Corner. It may well be Goliad at times.
“Be Thou then firmly Resolved, Duty is as heavy as a Mountain, and Death is as Light as a Feather.”
Wretchard, I earnestly seek your comments.
Subotai Bahadur
#56 ME
OH CRAP!
I humbly apologize. Thought I had closed the html tag for bold above. It should have been closed after “One simply does not lightly stockpile a store of opponents for no reason.”. I did not intend to shout at people, just emphasize two sentences. This appears to be terribly rude, and I had no such intent. Wretchard, in addition to accepting my apology, if you could fix that I would appreciate it.
Subotai Bahadur
What we are seeing is that there are no boundaries to what the Obama team will do.
There are two types of weakness. One of greed, foolishness and shortsightedness, the other of a radical. The first has it’s limits, of conscience, of shame. The second has no inherent limit.
We have seen this type of frenzied exercise of power in Canada where the NDP gains power due to a temporary but major failure of the more moderate parties. They have an agenda that they push, no limits knowing they won’t win more than one term.
They don’t. But their legacies never disappear.
The current administration has two years. At this rate in 2010 the democrats will lose badly in the house. But all the pieces will be in place, and no one will ever get the political strength to undo what has been legislated. And with a serious moderating influence in congress, Obama will probably win in 2012.
That’s assuming that some idiot doesn’t try to start a war. A big assumption.
Derek
I know nothing about Samantha Power other than what I gleaned from reading “A Problem From Hell”. It seemed to me that she described the various problems (of how to deal with genocide) from many different points of view, enabling me to reach conclusions at times different than hers. The book was not a set of briefs for her own conclusions, ignoring the complexities of the problems, but truly a description of problems from hell. If she continues to see and present problems from different perspectives, that should be of value to any administration even though she also states her own conclusions.
Best wishes,
Jim
It reads fine in bold, subotai; in fact one could have meant it that way on merit.
I think we should calm down. Samantha Power isn’t the devil. The underlying reason to worry about this episode is that it indicates that a lot of things are done for show and that there are underlying agendas which are simply waiting for public attention to flag. That’s the real problem.
However, this realization should people more vigilant and clearer thinking. We ought not to embrace wild theories because that’s sloppy thinking.
Anyway, the “burnt bridge” theme –thanks for the term –that’s what is bothering me about the markets and economy one the one side and DC policy and official statements, hints, foreshadows, and trial balloons on the other. It’s as if the power & control wants to bust out the system. Clues are everywhere, like ash fall from a forest fire that hasn’t quite hove into view.
wretchard is right of course, but meanwhile today the Dow is closing below 8000 again, down 9% for January, and gold was up $22 to $930. Not shadows, but reality.
I’m looking for ways to gauge the market reaction to the stimulus package, not only with respect to stock prices, but with regard to whether it makes any sort of difference. Gordon Brown in the UK is rapidly losing popularity, almost his legitimacy, after the public watched his prescriptions have no effect.
The objective question, to which I think we need to find a scientific answer, is whether the stimulus packages do anything. Of course one argument is that without the stimuli things would be worse. But clearly we have to figure out a way to spot fall of shot so we can adjust, change weapons or cease fire. Right now Godzilla is walking out of the water and it is a relevant question to ask whether the stuff we’re throwing at him is making any difference at all and if so, what kind of difference.
My own worry about the stimulus package is that it seems to contain so little thought. An extremely short debate for an extremely huge spending bill. Never in history has so much been spent with so little consideration. So the campaign to stampede any opposition into voting for it by taking out TV ads is very worrisome. It’s like we don’t even want to bother to think, but simply act on blind faith, even when the orders don’t come from God. Or don’t they?
Another name in Washington for a wild and outrageous rumor that is immediately debunked is a “Trial Balloon.”
wretchard, wall street bonuses are how three quarters of compensation is paid to workers in the brokerage biz –for POTUS to use “shameful” is inflammatory and demoralizing, even if it’s true, at this ticklish time, and esp in view of 2008′s bonuses already down by half. We got to have money flowing in to the markets, not out, if we are going to stop the evaporation of will to fight for the system. just while typing this the tv biz news is showing Obamaian Sen Claire McCaskill in the well of the senate saying, expression & voice quivering with emotion, “We want our financial institutions to survive, but not to keep kicking our taxpayers in the shins while they drink champagne on their private jets.” yesterday –this whole week –has been full of this –check text of Obam’s remarks this a.m. introducing his working class task force and launching it with three capital punitive executive orders. All this is of a piece with the ‘so big we can’t see it’ subversion of the system by the suspended uptic rule and the rule 157 –both of which are killing the financial sytem and the economy along with it –and for no discernable reason. I’m tellin’ ya –something is wrong –really wrong. what I can’t understand is why is no one screaming? Why isn’t all of wall street in the streets with placards over Rule 157? I can’t answer that, so i have to assume there’s a chance i’m just, well, nuts.
#66
Do you know anyone who will write this up? Let’s get it out there.
I would love to see a belmont post titled “Rule 157″ –as it is the thread with which joe and jill could begin spooling up what is in store for them.
W @ 67 –give me 24 hrs and i’ll send you bullet points as i see ‘em. i need a day cause –(ok, laugh) kids are coming in for one of ‘em’s birthday party here tomorrow and bringing dates so i have to vacuum and dust and pretty up the jernt. Izzat a perfect paradigm or what? Paradigms = pair o dimes = annual food budget come 2012.
GREAT NEWS –RNC announces new chief, and it’s Michael Steele –he’s the real deal –conservative intellectual patriot afraid of nobody and clean as a whistle, and sadly important, he’s a minority!
The “moral hazard”, you all treat this as if you think POTUS sees it as a bad thing. Chicago machine, guys, who sent her? “Monster”, again, you see that as a bad thing, while the Chicago machine sees it as a positive recommendation. These are the “Powers That Be”; where is Elliot Ness when we need him??
type [ brian westbury mark to market ] into search, as he among many others has been vociferous on rule 157. if folks can understand that their burning ancestral home with all their possessions and memories is burning down while in fact surrounded by fire trucks full of firemen who can’t get out of their trucks and deploy the fire hoses because no one will give the order to dismount, maybe they’ll call their congresspersons.
by Eagle 109 (Comment)
Seeking Alpha
The problem with the FASB Rule 157 coupled with Sarbanes Oxley means if you overstate an asset value then you go to prison. Now most CEO’s enjoy the light of day so you could understand their reluctance to sign off on any valuation method that could be challenged.
Therefore FASB 157 states that if no readily available market price can be found then you must value the asset based on readily available data and adjust for the risk. In a market where no counterparty exists and no sales are being made then most investment banks are carrying a near worthless asset on the books according to FASB 157 and in light of Sarbanes Oxley the CEO will err on the side of caution. The issue has been partially addressed by the FASB restatement of Rule 157 but it brings little in punitive relief for those signing especially in the daily Mark to Market requirements.
Until an effective market maker in these troubled assets can be implemented, then the rules and regulations keep an artificially low value on the books.
If you wanted to break the American system stealthily & without overt war, you would zoom in on the Dollar. If you want to break the Dollar, you would zoom in on devaluation, which needs the other mature currencies to relatively hold against gold and oil and other basic commodities while Dollar falls against them. This is the trick our enemies are having trouble with.
But the conditions –massive increases in the number of Dollars during a sharp breakdown of GDP, employment (tax rcpts vs emergency spending obligations) and consumer confidence in the future (AKA trust in motives and competence of political and financial and social institutions) –are being set, or are haphazardly setting up (this is the question), in near-perfect time and attention sequence.
buddy@66: Cramer (and Kudlow) scream about both the uptick rule and mark-to-market, I believe. (I know the first, fuzzy on the second.)
But I agree with the basic point – tear-filled hankies coming from Congress – where are the flinty-eyed professionals?
re #73, (con’t) “…an artificially low value on the books.” which is evaporating the value of assets globally per se, causing evaporation of household and personal net worth, thus spending, thus lending, thus working, thus laughing, thus procreating, thus resisting murderous war rage, thus —well it just goes on in a classic vicious circle, building a vacuum like the eye of a hurricane, pulling in confidence and joy of life like a hurricane pulls in cold high air to take heat out of the sea.
I can only point out that Obama, Reid, Pelosi and Franks received hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions from Wall St. Just for the inauguration alone, Obama received a good chunk from financial firms. Are they going to give any of that back?
The MSM has sold plenty fo airtime and ad pages reporting about this fiasco, are they giving any of that back?
The hypocrisy is stunning, but what is really chilling is the notion that the government has the right to say how much money people make, how they should run their businesses or how to depose of their property.
They are not prepared to prosecute anyone involved, including people on the HIll, or government officials at places like Fannie or Freddie, they will not look into the possibility that there was a will manipulation, even an assault on the system, and yet they are throwing out charges that blanket a whole industry.
Are we to imagine that the government gives us an allowance?
People should be deeply alarmed by this development. It really constitutes a rhetorical assault on capitalism. What are they really up to with a coordinated media game like this? Are they setting the stage to nationalize Wall St? that is what the buzz is in the Davos crowd. Are they trying to goad the GOP into defending Wall St?
If there was not clause in the bailout terms to cap salaries, then no one has broken any law, and thus it is not the Government’s business. It is private property. These people signal with every utterance and act that they are Totalitarian Socialists. The public should be in a state of alarm.
Another issue is why is he picking a fight with money interest in the Finance industry. This sector has been one of his biggest boosters and is loaded with Liberals. What do these people had up their sleeves.
Note: I actually serveral times went off on NY libs today about this, and each one agreed with me. There was a little token resistance, but it was easy to swat down. I have no idea what this means, I just throw it out there.
Buddy, I think it is a determined attack on the US system, including the dollar. There is too much coincidence – it just seem too rational, too focused and too well timed to not be an attack. The Obama crowd are just too cocky. All of this stinks to the high heavens. Why cannot this get in front of people? How do we do it? Can some one wrap this up and get it out to pundits? Rush? the RNC?
It would be great to have Steele out there defending the country. This is moving so fast. they need to get out in front. You might write something up about the dollar too.
(BTW, it is a good sign the he is got that RNC seat, he is a much more engaging person that Obama people will like him. They way Dawson what shaping up, I was starting to worry).
One of the issues that could be driving the apparent rapidity of events and the apparent turmoil could be as simple as fear.
Nov 2008 Unemployment figures
Anecdotal evidence indicates that unemployment has increased since the above report came out. This is serious bad juju. These numbers represent millions of people out of work, in danger of losing health benefits, unable to pay off loans, credit cards,…you get the drift. Based on the very knowledgable discussions on the BC, this problem is not going away soon. So what do we do with this tsunami of need that is here, right now. Well, money helps. Cutting taxes, not so much. Probably very few of the millions of unemployed are going to be going to H.R. Block this year. Granted, there are boondoggles in the “stimulus” bill, but they ARE Democrats, after all. That’s what Democrats do. Meanwhile, I believe that the current administration is trying to prevent as much harm to those who need help as possible. It is the nature of conservatives to take the long term, preserve business and it will preserve the people view. It is the nature of liberals to take the short term, throw money at the problem view (remember Katrina?). Quite frankly, as I look at the waves of disaster getting higher, I lean toward throwing life lines to those in need. We’ll sort out the bad and good after every one that we can reach is dry an warm. If the Democrats screw up royally, well, we’ll get our chance to try. But if the conservatives, en masse, let a lot of people go under, metaphorically speaking, we indeed will never get the reins of government again. It is a bad situation, but fear does not make it better.
the Obamians have been mis-labeling like crazy and it’s confusing the dickens out of us. I can’t write it all down here now, so let me make two ‘time’ bookends –POTUS “shameful” & McCaskill’s rant today, and the bank stocks collapse last November after the election.
In the former, do you note that they excoriate the few for ‘taking too much’ in order to sell their own taking of TARPS and stims a gazillion times more?
And in the latter, while we all watched all those banks lose 50 to 70% of their value (busting out widows and orphans and union retirees alike, mind you) in a matter of days right after the election, we thought it was showing a broad anti-Obama sentiment.
Then Cramer, through some spying inside the exchanges, lets us know that it wasn’t broad, it was extremely narrow, and it was from a short volume of almost 50% (ten times normal ratio), and included naked shorting (illegal but who cares) and banks shorting their own stock while leaking rumors against their own viability!
So, in a rigged set up, losing-to-win, winning-to-lose, what would you expect to hear next? Reports that these same institutions’ people were supporting Obama for president in the election just prior? Yep.
So, high placed pro Obama financiers breaking the economy down, exactly the opposite of what we would automatically assume they would try to do –which is of course, to help their guy save the economy?
And the piled up short profits off their own banks’ crashing –’icing’? The form the pay-off took (since the whole mess did for a fact empty plenty of executive suites)?
Crashing the banks for Obama?
If so, why? We need an investigation. But, by whom?
Our Acorn investigators?
Programmer, you’re right on the sentiment –but look at the bill–how much (two thirds, some say) is technically non stim, that only 10% can even get into the channel in FY 2009. by contrast, look at the counter plan, immediately cut the payroll tax, to show up in the next pay period, expected increased spending to start adding back the mostly ‘inventory-run out’ job losses.
and through it all, it’s the rule 157 pencil as put to banks solvency which continually keeps justifying the accelerating stampede, facilitated technically by the missing uptic rule and the enforcement holiday on naked shorting.
Money supply in less than a year doubled, in dollars equal to growth from 1920 to 2007. yes, fed balance sheet growing equally on both sides through the asset take overs –but –what if you are a foreign holder? how long until you want higher returns to lend us money? It’s already begun, bond traders calling bear just since Geithner insulted our banker as his first act as treasury sec. Weak auction just two days ago –10 year benchmark bond 20 basis points in wrong direction in a week or so.
If you want to keep the economic crisis going –you want to stop any housing recovery –best done by forcing mortgage rates up (they are pegged to the benchmark 10 year).
best way for quick action on this, have your new treasury sec as his first act hit your banker (china) where it hurts, in the stability and internal legitimacy spot –accuse him of devious banditry.
The CDS and other toxic wastes in a bank portfolio are assigned Level 3 and are priced my phony math models whose parameters are chosen to get prices that the bank execs want.
There is no magic way to avoid deleveraging.
McConnel of Kentucky wants to turn the AJM’s into 30 fixed with 4% rates backed by us.
The folks who bought into the housing ponzi scheme should have to eat their losses and move to apartments. There is nothing wrong with apartments that are not in the rent control genre.
I grew up in apartments and after we married we lived in apartments and then rented town houses until we purchased our fist house in 1974.
So even “conservatives” want to steal from us savers to reward idiot risk takers from taking losses. Rent seeking is running amock in DC at all levels.
Buddy, the GOP should set up a non-governmental committee to look at this. Go into detail, FIOA where possible. When the time is right, somehow slide it into Congress, the DoJ, etc.
They should have Rudy run this and be the spokesman. Steele would be an immense asset too. There have to be at least one or two high level Wall Streeters who are in the party and who are patriots.
It seems that we have to settle conclusively certain issues:
1) Was there a coordinated attack, and did in involve foreign actors”
2) If there was a coordinated attack, was there any collusion with the Democrats?
(Knowledge of it without approtiate action is collusion too)
3) If some portion of it was not an attack, if it is just profit taking skulduggery shorting etc., why did not regulators/official/execs catch it? Should officials have acted yet did not for political reasons. Is there criminality involved on any side.
(Note that the whole mess could be a combination of the three point above. They are not mutually exclusive.)
I think the public would eat this up if it was sold right. There is deep consternation that the culprits are waltzing away from this.
(BTW Buddy, are you really sure that it was each bank was shorting just their own stocks? Across the board? Can we really know what was happening in naked shorts overseas(or legitimate shorts, for that matter), particularly in the EU, Dubai and Russia? Are we really sure of the break down of the actors here?)
Programmer: The way around that issue is to force them to have a separate bill for “emergency measures”. This is one of the most nasty aspect of this stimulus bill power play — it seizes on the crisis to bundle several issues together. Heath care funding, education funding, welfare issues, etc. It is quite intentional and if it is not obvious to the taxpayer, it can easily be made so (the attempt here to roll back welfare reform form the Clinton years is an obvious hot button that could be used.)
What the GOP should do is vociferously and repeatedly point out what they are trying to do, and force them to unbundle all of these issues, including so called “emergency measures”. This would be a way to focus on real stimulus, and by that I mean tax cuts. This should not be hard to sell. The nation wants a discussion about health care, for example, it does not want to be railroaded into something it does not understand. Unbundling the various issues would also move closer to getting the metrics in the clearer relief that Wretchard has been speculating about. The metrics should really be built into the bills anyway.
I will point out however, that “emergency measures” mindset is a dangerous game. The crisis will last a long time, people will go broke; This will beomce obvious and we cannot help people forever. Not all relief is on the same “tier” or of the same type. This might be managed better by tax breaks at some levels, and emergencies funds at others. A moratorium on Corporate taxes would seem key, as well as getting the government out of the business of picking winners, micro managing the system and in gerneral undermining it for their own political aganda. Again, the GOP can point this out and get to a reasonable discussion. It is all very common sensical and can be easily understood. Of course, they have to find a forum to get it out and find it darn quick. Who knows, maybe they can use it to b!tch about the MSM too.
In line with this the GOP has to find a way to decisively break this blaring Riefenstahlesque media frenzy that is closing in around the administration. This needs to be taken down and it can be done and done quickly.
People are already wearying of it. An quick and adroit use of people like Palin, Rudy and most certainly Steele can do this. Here is an entry point:
“If you knew what was they were going to do in January, would you have voted for them in November?”
Lots of people bought their BS, there has got to be a kernel buyers remorse to work with.
By the way, that can be linked with the “investigation committe” I outlined above.
Monday, if announce:
1) rule 157 to be rewritten to allow pre Sarbox model (discounted future cash flow)
2) put stim pak on hold except for emergency relief third, and instead cut the two bottom brackets from 10 and 15 to 5 and 10 immediately
all our problems would instantly change directions from worsening to bettering. dow’d go up 1000 points. Potential homebuyers would get their event-bottom and go in the market. businesses now ‘running out’ inventories would start placing orders, business would stop laying off and soon enough start re-hiring.
mongoose, start here and i’ll find the insiders-doing-themselves link –gotta grab a bite but will be right back.
Buddy:
And followed by:
3) A 2 year moratorium on corporate taxes across the board.
4) The Democrat Party hereby announces it has decided not to pursue the American version of The Great Leap Forward (and we really, really neam it, at least for now).
and one would hope for
5) We are going to sit him down and have a little chat with him.
“If Congress got a hold of these numbers, there’d be an immediate investigation, Cramer said. Because “this is a true scandal, and it came close to wrecking our financial system.” snip from
link
Thanks
Mongoose says:
The way around that issue [humanatarian aid] is to force them to have a separate bill for “emergency measures”. This is one of the most nasty aspect of this stimulus bill power play — it seizes on the crisis to bundle several issues together.
buddy says:
put stim pak on hold except for emergency relief third, and instead cut the two bottom brackets from 10 and 15 to 5 and 10 immediately
programmer responds:
So how do we get you two on Obama’s economic team? Or maybe, get Obama on your team.
programmer: Have him do something about those ears, then I might consider it.
But seriously, we are the last people that Obama would ever listen to.
Ironically, if he did, he would flip this unbelievably bad beginning, and save his second term. He could do it all in 3 week. But he cannot because it runs counter to his every belief, impulse and even his very ways of knowing the world. He wants to destroy the system (or perhaps his puppeteers do)>
Obama is completely alien to the American experience, culture and tradition. He does not get it–he cannot get it. He does not want to get it.
This is becoming more obvious every day. It is becoming evident as well that he actually does deeply believe is his communist claptrap. No matter how those beliefs are mediated by mere personal political ambition and calculations or modulated by character flaws or personalty disorders, he is a true believer; it is core to his being and thus he carries with him all of the animus toward the US and the Western tradition that goes with Marzism. He literally cannot escape it.
The Republic faces a grim struggle.
is his = in his
mongoose, there’s more on that –the flurry of exposure of price-killing rumors about corporate situations that could only have come from inside, coming out at perfect rally-killing moments. i’ll dig it up.
programmer, moveon.org, the soros creation and outlet, is running ads as we speak against nay-voting representaives in their districts. the ads are bone-chilling –try to catch o’reilly today whose show features one of ‘em. This bill opens 43 new federal programs that will live on long after crisis is over. The number of new bureaucrats –permanent gov’t jobs, not whatever private jobs get temporarily created –equals a new Post Office, but doesn’t have to deliver any mail. the real killer is that these jobs would aroise organically in response to real demand, with a few tax cuts –or moratoriums. 35% corporate is next to highest in world –in THIS recession? and we wonder why the layoffs? Want to get more value in assets, lower the capital gains and dividend taxes –want to target the working class, hit those bottom two rates. Do all that, and the safety net adds can go down to 20 billion and do ythe same amount of emergency help as this 1.25 trillion will do now and the months forward.
And I’m just parroting people i trust –i don’t belong on nobody brain trust –’less they want a news junkie to watch tv for ‘em. even socialism wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t flip human incentives and risk/rewards upside down from light to dark and leave folks weak and in need of glorious leaders.
The number of new bureaucrats –permanent gov’t jobs, not whatever private jobs get temporarily created –equals a new Post Office, but doesn’t have to deliver any mail.
I’ve been wondering about that. The administrative cost of expanding the bureaucracy to implement the new programs is … where? Is that included in the $800B +/- stimulus bill? [not to mention the cost of Obama's second tier of "czars" - where do their salaries come from?]
In 1819 John Marshall wrote, “An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy.” In 1960 Richard Nixon proved himself the smartest man in the room when he said, “I think that the reason that I voted against having the federal government uh – pay teachers’ salaries was probably the very reason that concerned Senator Kennedy when in January of this year, in his kick-off press conference, he said that he favored aid for school construction, but at that time did not feel that there should be aid for teachers’ salaries – at least that’s the way I read his remarks. Now, why should there be any question about the federal government aiding s- teachers’ salaries? Why did Senator Kennedy take that position then? Why do I take it now? We both took it then, and I take it now, for this reason: we want higher teachers’ salaries. We need higher teachers’ salaries. But we also want our education to be free of federal control. When the federal government gets the power to pay teachers, inevitably in my opinion, it will acquire the power to set standards and to tell the teachers what to teach.”
Now the government has created a financial crisis. The government controls the flow of credit and capital. The government has effectively forced the financial industry to take the government on as a partner to gain access to capital. Now the government demands to determine the wages of employees of financial firms. The government has and will determine what investments and loans those firms can make. The government is acting in the same capacity as the Mafia in taking over a restaurant or liquor store.
Because if cost of implementation is part of the package – and I assume it is – then some enterprising reporter should be able to do simple arithmetic and demonstrate that x% is directed into public sector administrative cost with (100-x)% directed into economic stimulation.
When Sec of State Hill’ry was sent
To nuzzle up to furners
Obamaman, our President
Said keep it on back burners
For we don’t want to cause a scene
By seeming to be forceful
Just tell them we were much too mean
I know you’ll be resourceful
She left DC in Air Force Two
With friend Samantha Power
And locked Samantha in the loo
Before they cleared the tower
And in Dubai before the clans
Each dressed in his keffiyeh
She laid before them Obies plans
Then smiled and said I’ll see ya
When she returned the Prez’s grin
Turned into a fierce glower
He said I know just where you’ve been
But where’s Samantha Power
Old Hill eyes wide with faint surprise
With sadness and contrition
Said Ahmedinejad had eyes
For Sam but on condition
That we renounce hostil’ty toward
Iran and all its neighbors
So I believed my going forward
Advanced your peaceful labors
Samantha’s in a good place now
She looks great in a burkha
I understand she’s learned to plow
She was always a good workah
The prez he sighed and shook his head
Said old Sammy was a plus
But if it’s like what you just said
She was better under the bus
@Walt ,
That is as good as anything in National Review’s “Notes & Asides.”
i agree with Lotm…better even.
here’s sumpin’ else good (snip):
It is alleged that when Albert Einstein was asked to name the greatest invention in human history, he gave the following reply: “Compound interest.” On page 1,664 of Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto’s masterwork, The Mind and Society, we read: “A centime placed on compound interest at the rate of 4 per cent at the time of the birth of Christ would yield by the year 1900 a fabulous amount in francs….” The exact number would be 23,085 followed by 26 zeros. In Pareto’s day the planet earth would have to be made of solid gold in order to make up 3 percent of the sum.
After nineteen centuries of “progress” why isn’t the human race enjoying a decent retirement? Well, the answer is simple.
(read more of JR Nyquist’s latest)
Thanks guys I really needed that
Been here since Wretchard was a cat
Never commented, took my time
Till realized that words could rhyme
but now that you know
that, Walt,
please do with it mo
often us exalt.
(needs work)
Guess what department doesn’t get any part of those stimulus billions?
One Guess.
That’s right. You got it. Defense.
Dear Leader Da Bama wants a 11 percent cut in DOD expenditures. From Ace.
Buddy Larsen @102
It’s all in the meter
Just ask any reader
And as for your request for more
There’s one on C. Rangle
Though I managed to mangle
The end when lost track of the score
There’s another on Hillary
Whom we all love to pillory
Contained in the post about AIDS
Not a subject for levity
But with reasonable brevity
We can all laugh at Hill’ry’s charades
I expect this exchange to take place between Samantha Power and Hillary Clinton the first time they huddle together:
Power: Nice to see you, Hillary.
Clinton: That’s “Secretary of State Monster” to you, bitch.
yuk yuk –funny stuff youz guyz–
news, Kent Conrad (D), one of the two senators (fellow Democrat Chris Dodd the other) known to’ve taken bribes from Countrywide in the subprime fannie freddie countrywide ninja loan racket is the newly-appointed chairman of the investigative committee forming to investigate the subprime fannie freddie countrywide ninja loan racket fallout.
You can’t make this stuff up, and there’s no need to anyway.
Poor dumb Al Capone –all he needed was to bribe someone to get him Elliot Ness’s job. Elliot Ness would’ve then stayed a data clerk back at HQ, and Al Capone could’ve sent him a report from time to time saying “nope, no crime going on here in Chicago as far as i can tell.”
Then he coulda moseyed on down to the garage and drilled him some more mugs with his chopper.
See, since he always knew where he was, it would have been easy for Capone to avoid capturing himself, just by always searching where he knew he wasn’t. Well, not precisely where he wasn’t, because if he was searching there, then he would’ve had to have been there searching, and would almost certainly have been able to catch himself, as well as, to that degree, unable to avoid capture.
So he would have had to fudge a little, say by wearing a watch on both wrists, i mean a seperate watch on each wrist, not the same one on both wrists, and having the two of ‘em set an hour apart, and then never staying in any one place more than 55 minutes or say 58 or even 59 if you like to cut it close. That would’ve done it.
Of course you’d still have to remember when which of the two wrists was “you” and find some way to mentally disassociate from or compartmentalize that other arm. Actually just the wrist with the watch but the whole arm would give you “more to work with” in the disassociating. I mean, while it would vex to claim the elbow and disclaim the wrist, “going dark” on the whole shebang from the shoulder would just be a matter of tucking that off hand in your pocket or under your belt.
you could just form the habit of thinking of one arm, say your left, as your “racketeer” arm, and your other, the right, as your “G Man” arm.
(memo to self: send suggestion to Senator Conrad. you –i –may need an affordable mortgage someday! wink wink. or a pardon (*gulp*)
Buddy: what about the middle arm?
@ 109. Mongoose:
Buddy: what about the middle arm?
Trinary logic?
It is a phantom arm. For now.
April 2006 Message from Dan Simmons
I wonder what the three last words were.
Subotai Bahadur: Great post. You inspired Buddy and others to go on a rampage.
I think part of the meaning of violating the societal etiquette of constitutional way of life is to take down the established protocol of doing business and conducting daily affairs. It helps to disorient the honorable actors in society to the point where no one knows where to hang their hat, or what is real and what is not. It creates the Alinsky preferred marxist chaos, where it is easy for the marxist con artists to impose socialist rule while most of the American people are distracted getting their bearings.
I particularly like the term ” Vichy Republican”, which unfortunately describes Senate Republicans to a T.
Do not despair; there is hope. I sense in the comments here at BC and elsewhere that the curtains are being pulled back and more and more people are getting a clue. I for one will not longer give the whore monster Ann Dunham’s abandoned sicko son a chance or break anymore. After these first ten days, I am seeing RED, Marxist Red, and I ain’t gonna take it no mo. This marxist traitor, this Koran loving boy of a President is destroying millions of American lives and the lives of hundreds of millions around the globe.
I think we need to barrage Israel with support for Netanyahu. He is our best chance for giving Iran, Koran Boy and our enemies a bloody nose right now.
111. twobyfour: “Barack Hussein Obama”?
This is a stunning thread. It should be required reading for all Americans.
Let’s not forget that part of the problem we’re having piecing things together is probably deliberately generated. Barry has talked about basically being a Rorschach card upon which the public can project their wishes/expectations/fantasies. What generates this is the ambiguity of the stimulus, so we should probably assume that he/they is/are continuing to try to be as indecipherable as possible.
I doubt it’s really a good long-term management strategy. Such unconscious desires and fears have a way of accumulating and being discharged in very unpredictable ways.
maineman, when we the people gave people like Pelosi and Obama the grounds to assert before every sentence “The American people elected me to….” we truly crossed over into no country for old men, and under Murphy’s Law (“if it can, it will”), possibly no country for anyone.
Μολὼν λαβέ
I’m reading my local paper online about how our Senator Judd Gregg is seriously thinking of accepting Obama’s offer to be Commerce Secretary, thereby throwing the Senate into a condition where the Republicans can no longer even muster a filibuster. This is truly a disaster. I think Obama has the cunning of a fox and he’s very effectively putting all his markers in place. Besides, we are now learning that the cabinet appointments are window dressing: the real policy advisers are the Leftists being stuffed into the West Wing by Obama.
This man’s subterfuge is brilliant. The people have fallen for it, hook, line, and sinker.
What does it say about the GOP when one of its senators would consent to leaving the nation and his party in the lurch for a cabinet position where he’s not likely to have a lot of influence anyway?
What is brilliant about that? It is the stupidity of the GOP that is stunning.
You think that this is the first time that this trick has been tried?
On has to wonder if Gregg is getting something under the table. This would be really dishonorable of him to do this. He surely knows what is up.
The will just side track him or jettison him within a year. The party leadership needs to get on top of this and stop it.
@ 116. fred
It does not say anything about the GOP when one senator accepts a position in the 0 cabinet. May be if 10 were doing it, one may wonder. It does say something about Gregg, though.
Either it is a lack of spinal column, or stupidity. He may be hoping to be eaten last, but the moment it would be undeniable the economy is getting worse, they’d eat him for a lunch.
Fred @ 116
I think Obama has the cunning of a fox and he’s very effectively putting all his markers in place.
Is it Obama or his handlers?
Look at the way the Democrat caucuses were set up. Primarily states with small African-American populations, where “white guilt” could be milked for all it’s worth.
Coincidence or planning?
Several also had their dates moved up to Super Tuesday and a couple went from secret primaries to caucuses.
If my math is correct. Obama won those twelve 316 to 146.
Here and here are some more links dealing with Dem primaries and caucuses.
Ageeing with 119. twobyfour. Gregg is in the game for his own gain. Not yours, not the GOP, not the USA; Just in ther for dear old Gregg!
There is no way any( R) is going to make any impression on the (D) establishment They are simply being sucked in to provide an false positive example for B Hussein O’s “bipartisan” line.
So, if Obama gets the 60 Senate seats in his party’s column, it means that he and Pelosi own everything that goes through. The whole kit and kaboodle. I think the incompetence we are seeing so far will be amplified by the over reach and arrogance.
The stock market is saying something to the Jackasses and they are just not getting it. And for The Messiah to be saying that the recession could last for years is also weighing on investor psychology. That and the fact that Pelosi wants the 2003 Bush tax cuts gone next year, not in 2010.
I haven’t seen anything yet that tells me that these people know what they are doing in economic policy or foreign policy. Nada.
In December, I must admit that I had some lingering thoughts, based on some of the cabinet appointments, that maybe the President and the Jackasses would be more pragmatic and less ideological. Prior to that point, I held to my guns that what I had learned about this Red Diaper Baby imparted everything I would need to know. But after learning about who really is going to have the influence in the government, I’ve been upset with myself for ever doubting my original convictions.
They are going to screw up and screw up in legendary fashion. It will be worse than Carter. In 2012 only the Far Left and a few roped dopes in the Middle Muddle are going to vote for him again. This guy is toast, and he’ll have to be very lucky to get away with it. Pelosi shows absolutely no rationality or good sense, but she can get away with it because of the district she represents.
And that’s part of the national problem. If you look at the red spots and the blue spots on the map, the blue is concentrated in the urban centers and all of some states. The vast swaths of the country are red. So, it is the urban collectivists in places like Pelosi’s district and Conyers’ district that dominate the polity right now. And as one who lives in a rural area of a blue state that used to be red (NH), I resent what the city-dwellers, kiddies, and lassies have done to us all.
In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Robert M. Pirsig says:
“My personal feeling is that this is how any further improvement of the world will be done: by individuals making Quality decisions and that’s all. God, I don’t want to have any more enthusiasm for big programs full of social planning for big masses of people that leave individual Quality out. These can be left alone for a while. There’s a place for them but they’ve got to be built on a foundation of Quality within the individuals involved. We’ve had that individual Quality in the past, exploited it as a natural resource without knowing it, and now it’s just about depleted. Everyone’s just about out of gumption. And I think it’s about time to return to the rebuilding of this American resource – individual worth.”
programmer ponders some more:
We seem to be short a few Quality individuals in government these days, that’s for true.
When all that massive naked short-selling of banks was going on, just a mere week after the electon of Tne One, don’t you wonder what George Soros – that old Breaker of Banks and Crusher of Currencies – was doing at about that time??
Uncorking a bottle of champagne deep down under the earth, in a dark cavern lit by burning paper currency, with his boss, Satan.
Actually, I merely pictured him calling up his traders around the world and saying “Good job, boys – perfect timing! A nice bonus has been deposited in your off-shore account.” But your picture now – that takes first prize.
Oh the Da-bama heartache, it’s just not fair, why it’s downright racist, the best laid plans aren’t working…
First , the complete whore John Mc Cain can’t/ won’t vote for the crap sandwich…
Then, always dependably Rino Susan Collins can’t/won’t vote for the crap sandwich…
Then Democrat Bill Nelson won’t vote for the crap sandwich….
And now Senator Gregg from New Hampshire won’t take his cabinet position unless the Dem governor replaces him with a Republican…
Oh the Horrors!
Could it be that the first Marxist, Traitor, Koran Loving ( also some percentage less than half – black) President has exposed his true callous, arrogant, traitorous colors too soon?
This could be fun. Wouldn’t it be nice if Obama was kneecapped right out of the gate when he couldn’t not get his socialist crap sandwich stimulus plan passed?
The Koran boy who demanded full and complete submission and no real tax cuts in his precious not a moment to lose stimulus plan when he crowed “We Won”, may have to eat his words.
The Republic may still be saved from socialist doom! May God bless the efforts of our true patriots once more.
“Samantha Power, the Harvard University professor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author…”
Remember that Walter Duranty also “won” a Pulitzer Prize.
“There is no famine in Ukraine!”
Duranty swore and swore;
answered 14 million Stalin-starved dead,
“Hell, no, not anymore!”