If the President of the United States can childishly taunt his opponents by saying “I won” the election, then I feel comfortable saying “I told you so.”
Back in February, I wrote:
This is how politics works….or doesn’t work. Using political calculation to determine what gets funded and what gets put on the back burner causes funds and resources to be misallocated. That is why free market societies out perform centrally managed society every time. (LINK)
USAToday is now confirming what I knew would happen:
Most of the $2.2 billion in economic stimulus money for Army Corps of Engineers construction projects will be spent in the home districts of members of Congress who oversee the corps’ funding, a USA TODAY analysis found.
Two-thirds of the money will be spent in states or districts represented by members of the House and Senate appropriations subcommittees that direct how the Corps of Engineers spends its money, the analysis found. (LINK)
I’m sure the Democrats in Congress know this would happen. They just didn’t care. This is obviously a misallocation of funds, but the game in Washington is not about watching out for the taxpayers. It’s about getting reelected.
Would you be happy if your child took your credit card to the mall, ran up a $10,000 bill but came home with a little present for you? The next time you Representative comes back from Washington telling you of all the local projects he has helped to fund, don’t praise him. Scold him for being irresponsible.
And for all those feminist who read my blog (Snort), “him” and “her” are interchangable. Get over it.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in Common Sense on June 22nd, 2009
Barack Obama’s father came to America where he married a woman and had a son. After a divorce, he moved back to Africa and had more children. The difference in the lives of those children is striking. Barack Obama rose to be the leader of the most powerful nation on Earth. Even if he lost the election, his achievements are quite impressive.
His half brother lives in a shack.
You would think that Barack Obama would be grateful that he grew up in the United States. Instead, he tours the world apologizing for sins of our nation. If President Obama’s father had taken him back to Kenya, his life would be extraordinarily different. He might be roommates with that half-brother.
Barack Obama grew up in a culture that rewards hard work and risk taking, yet he wants to reshape our culture. He wants “social justice” and “wealth redistribution” As President, he rewards failure and promotes those who are politically connected.
Barack Obama just may be the most ungrateful person in the world.
It took longer then I expected, but Barack Obama’s Rasmussen poll numbers have finally gone negative. As of 6/21/2009, the people who “Strongly Disapprove” are 2% higher than the “Strongly Approve”. When taxes and inflation hit, these numbers will only get worse.
Health experts have long warned of the risk of obesity, but a new Japanese study warns that being very skinny is even more dangerous, and that slightly chubby people live longer.
People who are a little overweight at age 40 live six to seven years longer than very thin people, whose average life expectancy was shorter by some five years than that of obese people, the study found.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in Health Care on June 20th, 2009
The ban on tobacco is turning out to be the “slippery slope” arugment come to life.
At one time, smoking was accepted everywhere. The ban on smoking started innocently enough. The first bans came on airplanes. It seemed to make sense since smoking can be a real nuisance to some. People are trapped on airplanes for hours and allowing smoking didn’t seem fair to non-smokers, but the bans didn’t stop in the airplanes.
Eventually smoking was banned in all public buildings. Some have advocated banning smoking in city parks and privately owned homes. These bans come with dubious scientific studies that warn of the dangers of second hand smoke.
OK…I don’t believe those “scientific” reports, but I will let them slide for argument sake. We don’t allow one person’s liberty to infringe on another’s. If second hand smoke is a danger, then someone’s freedom to smoke is potentially hurting someone else]s freedom to health. That’s the argument and it is not baseless.
But the busy-bodies won’t stop there. The Philadelphia City Council (which is driving the city full speed into bankruptcy) is now taking on the important issue of smokeless tobacco.
City councilman Jim Kenney now is proposing an outright ban in Philadelphia on all smokeless tobaccos, including snuff, chewing tobacco and dipping tobacco. (LINK)
Smokeless tobacco only hurts the user, so the second hand damage argument is gone. The liberals have gone to their universal defense. When all else fails, a liberal will go with the emotional plea. The ban on smokeless tobacco is to protect “the children”. Oh brother!
So once all tobacco is gone, the busy-bodies will be done infringing on our freedom…right? If Americans believe that then we won’t have freedom for long.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in free speech on June 19th, 2009
I have heard discussions from Republican commentators that think we should refrain from calling Barack Obama a socialist. They may be correct that such rhetoric is not helpful (at this point). What Republicans need to do is focus on issues…as if socialism isn’t an “issue”.
Since taking office, I have seen nothing but a push toward socialism. We have seen the government take over large portions of the financial and manufacturing sectors. Now they have their sights on health insurance (with the final destination being socialized medicine).
That is pretty fast work for 5 months in office. At this point, I think it is up to the Democrats to prove that Barack Obam isn’t a socialist.
It might be wise for elected officials to refrain from calling Barack Obama a socialist. That doesn’t mean a constant drum beat from the little minions won’t help to highlight a huge philosophical difference. This tactic is no different than elected Democrats leaving the bashing to the DailyKos and MoveOn.org. So go ahead. Call our President a socialist. He deserves it until he shows faith in the free market.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in Common Sense on June 17th, 2009
Do you remember Barack Obama and Joe Biden’s promises that the government would be a careful watchdog over the stimulus money? I guess those promises were just empty words (as if we didn’t know it at the time).
The Obama Administration has fired Gerald Walpin of the national service agency.
Gerald Walpin, the national service agency’s inspector general, was dismissed over his handling of an investigation of the mayor of Sacramento, Calif., Kevin Johnson, an Obama supporter during the presidential campaign. (link)
At first, there was no reason given for the firing. When it became widely known that Barack Obama helped to pass a law saying that such firing needed an explanation and a 30 days notice delivered to Congress, the Administration needed to address the issue. This is their lame reason:
Norman Eisen sent a letter to McCaskill, Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, describing Walpin as “confused, disoriented, unable to answer questions” during a May meeting. Eisen said the behavior led board members to question his capacity to serve.
“Mr. Walpin had become unduly disruptive to agency operations, impairing his effectiveness” and lost the confidence of the board, Eisen wrote.
Remember when George Bush fired the US attorneys…which the president can fire for no reason. The New York Times, the Washington Post and most of the other dinosaurs investigated the firings. There was no crime. They worried that there was politics in Washington. Oh my!
The media may be falling down on the job, but it looks like at least some in Congress still understand their jobs. Sen. Clair McCaskill (D-MO) questioned why the president failed to follow a law that required the administration give Congress 30 days advanced notice.
With unemployment on the rise and profits on the decline, it seems the stimulus money has done nothing but stimulate corruption. It may be too soon to make such a judgment, but one thing we can determine from this story. The promise that the money would be spent wisely was nothing but empty words that people wanted to hear.
Hey Mr. President! After getting a book from your pal Hugo Chavez, you told a crowd of fawning journalists that you were a “reader”. Well, I have something for you to read. It’s the Constitution.
These are words that built this great nation. A nation you want to remake in your image. This document is an example of what great men do. They put careful thought into a few words instead of little thought into an hour long teleprompter speech. You have a lot to learn. Why not start from the beginning.
While you’re speed reading your way through the most important document in the last 1000 years, take time to notice that the Executive Branch (that’s your office) has not been authorized by the people to fire CEOs, set executive compensation, loot major corporations as a gift to labor unions or set the printing presses on overdrive in order to “stimulate” the economy. You won an election by a slim majority. You were not given free reign to (I’ll use liberal speak) “shred the constitution”. If you think the Constitution is outdated, there is a method for changing it. The Constitution itslef provides a way to make those changes, and it doesn’t involve courting the media, spending nearly a billion dollars and getting 53% of the popular vote. For good reason, it is much more difficult then that.
It is true that many Americans don’t pay attention to politics. They are disgusted by the liars and the corruption. They would rather go about their lives without knowing what goes on behind the scenes because your ways drive us crazy. You are making that increasingly more difficult to ignore your rules. I never gave you much of a chance because I saw right through your thin veil. Soon, Americans will wake up to find higher taxes and lost freedoms coupled with a weak foreign policy, high inflation, high interest rates and an economy that will make today look like the good ole days.
Then what will you do? You were so eager to remind us that “you won”. We will be eager to remind you that you took full control (more than authorized by the Constitution) and failed miserably. It’s not that I want you to fail. It’s just that I realize your arrogance is not a subsitute for the greatness achieved by free men operating in free markets.
You might say that I am a pessimist, but I’m not. I look forward to the day when the nation regains its national pride and rewards success while learning from failure. We will return to the day of strength, liberty and exceptionalism.
The world is ‘sleepwalking’ toward preventable natural disasters whose effects could be cut significantly with a modest increase in spending on risk reduction, the United Nations aid chief said on Tuesday. “The trends in disasters, particularly from climate change, are of enormous concern,” said John Holmes, U.N. undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs. (LINK)
There are so many ways to tear this apart.
This is the politics of fear
The “undersecretary-general for the humanitarian affairs”. Who cares what he thinks? Reuters will quote this guy but ignore Richard Lindzen…a Professor of Meterology at MIT
The world has been cooling for the last 11 years
Hurricane activity is down
The Global Warming thinks is falling apart so now the zealots call it “climate change”
Just a little common sense tells us to ignore the UN. The climate would be better served if we closed the UN doors and welded them shut forever.
Venezuela’s strong man Hugo Chavez is at it again. He has a plan to “give the government new powers to seize key companies”. (LINK)
This all makes sense because when a company is failing, what it really needs is to throw tax payers dollars at and a herd of government bureaucrats to make everything all right.
Of course, this is not a surprise. Hugo Chavez is a thug. What is a surprise is that this story isn’t about Hugo Chavez. This is Barack Obama’s plan. So much of the line that Barack Obama is a moderate. What a joke.
We always hear about the reaction from the Arab street. Today we are seeing the reaction from the Pursian street.
Since most of the people who use the “Arab Street” in the sense of reaction from the Middle East, for our purposes let’s just say they are one in the same.
Today the common people of Iran are revolting not against the United States but against tyranny. The never ending struggle between those who wish to rule over others with an iron fist and those who long for freedom continues. Freedom may sit patiently for a long time, but when it is released it comes like a damn that breaks.
The Mad Mullahs of Iran must be sweating these days.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in Election on June 15th, 2009
This excerpt was written in Liberal Fascism a couple of years ago.
GM offers an ironic confirmation of Marxist logic. According to orthodox Marxism, the capitalist system becomes fascist as its internal contradictions get the better of it. As a theory of political economy, this analysis falls apart. But at the retail level, there’s an undeniable truth to it. Industries that once had a proudly free-market stance suddenly sprout arguments in favor of protectionism, “industrial policy,” and “strategic competitiveness” once they find that they can’t hack it in the market. The steel and textile industries, certain automobile companies—Chrysler in the 1980s, GM today—and vast swaths of agriculture claim that the state and business should be “partners” at precisely the moment it’s clear they can no longer compete. They quickly become captives of politicians seeking to protect jobs or donations or both. These “last-gasp capitalists” do the country a great disservice by skewing the political climate toward a modified form of national socialism and corporatism. They’re fleeing the rough-and-tumble of capitalist competition for the warm embrace of It Takes a Village economics, and Hillary Clinton calls it “progress.”
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in Free Markets on June 12th, 2009
The main stream media (MSM) is calling the Holocaust shooter, James von Brunn, a right-wing extremist. James von Braunn views were not right wing.
This man hated Neocons. The left loves code words. Neocon is code for conservative Jew.
This man believed George Bush was behind the 9/11 attacks.
This man hated Jews.
It is the left in this country and throughout the world that hates Jews.
Right-wingers believe in individuals. It is the left that plays the identity political game. FDR was successful pitting large groups against smaller groups and that tradition still lives in the Democratic Party.
It is the left that wants to give special treatment to blacks in the form of “affrimative action”
It is the left that wants special punishment for crimes against gays
It is the left that demonizes the wealthy, productive class as greedy
It is the left that supports unions.
It is the left that demonizes groups and angers people. Right wingers tell people to stand up for personal rights and to speak out against the government and big brother policies…not other Americans. It was the left that demonized the AIG bonuses and organized a protest at AIG employee’s homes.
To the MSM, anything evil is right-wing, but the attacks at the Holocaust Museum were attacks fueled by the left…not the right.
Posted by: The Elephant Owner in Liberal Bias on June 11th, 2009
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