Should Obama Talk About Michael Jackson?
Given the sudden tragic death of Michael Jackson, I'm wondering if it is appropriate for President Obama to issue an official extended statement. I wouldn't pose such a question of a George W. Bush or even Bill Clinton, but it seems to me that the President's personal narrative may in fact call for such a statement. In fact in today's online Guardian, Joseph Harker draws parallels between Jackson and Obama. Some might call this comparison trite, but I certainly would not.
Now I know the leader of the free world isn't supposed to get misty and wax philosophic over the death of an entertainer. After all, with the turbulence in Iran and Pakistan, there certainly are more pressing things with which to concern himself. But to put this in a better context, let me take you back to the late 1960's when the first Jackson Five album came out. Before that time images of young, fully expressive black boys did not exist in any serious way in American media. The best we could do was re-runs of the Little Rascals with Stymie, Farina, and Buckwheat. Unlike some black psychologists, I won't go as far as to say that these images were damaging, but suffice it to say, they were far from inspirational. Then in 1969, the album "Diana Ross Presents The Jackson Five" came out. I can tell you from personal experience, that as a young black boy seeing five boys that looked like me on an album cover, was like walking on air.
Obama's Anemic Approach to Foreign Policy
Our understanding of leadership inevitably takes us down the road which intersects with character, principles, and values. Each American president had a public persona and agenda that reflected some mix of these vital elements, each of which differed in degrees that distinguished their presidencies, as well as highlighted their triumphs and failures.
During the campaign and since his election, we were told that one of the fundamental strengths of Barack Obama is his post-political, transpartisan approach to governing, which would translate into successes, domestically and in foreign affairs. For two views of that we turn first to Eugene Robinson, writing in today's Washington Post.
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What if Texas Really Tried to Secede?
Texas Governor Rick Perry recently stated that he believed his state would be within its legal rights to secede from the United States. Although he gave no indication that such a move is imminent or even under serious consideration, many Texas Democrats are furious at Perry over this assertion.
However, some of the state's Republicans seem to relish the idea. They realize that they would likely be the dominant party in a nation of Texas suddenly freed from a Democratically-controlled Washington.
Nicolas Sarkozy: "Redefining Capitalism"
In keeping with the Sarkozy expression of the recent G-20 (London) Summit, one could deduce that the functional righteousness of capitalism as an effective economic operating system is being scurrilously assaulted and besieged by the socialistic governments of Europe.
The assault on America's brand of enterprise is vicious, relentless, and wholly without material evidence; indeed, persons within this country representing governments, unions, and academia are exercising the sensibilities of a ranting mob as they curse and defame the very economic system that economically enabled America to be the greatest economic power the world has ever experienced.
Is Capitalism Immoral?
Perhaps you saw the protester's banner outside the G-20 Summit that read "Capitalism is Immoral." Writing at Townhall.com, Austin Hill explores this assertion and makes a reasonable foray into the argument's inner paradoxes, such as asking what the protester's alternative might be? The obvious answer is that draconian government regulation and controls to redistribute income more aggressively would mitigate capitalism's inherent unfairness.
However, by embracing that argument, Mr. Hill overlooks a more fundamental one: Why is it that people who are convinced they have the moral right to slaughter innocents in the womb also believe their are default moral arbiter in economics? Indeed, this is the same crowd--nay, mob--who would abrogate our 2nd Amendment rights, ensuring that only criminals are armed, who embrace illegal aliens who are draining our public coffers, and who would emasculate our military while inviting radical Islamists in through the front gate.
Obama and His Faithful's Charge Into Socialism
The Obama faithful, as well as, their leader is finding that governing has nothing to do with campaigning. While in the midst of a political campaign the contender can accuse, vilify, and repeat scurrilous nonsense with near impunity. The contender can promise emphasis, de-emphasis, rhetorically dance and circle around an important issue with innuendoes of magical metaphors. But in the trenches of governing one cannot fool all the people all of the time-President Obama is about to learn an old and true lesson-when governing don't exaggerate, don't promise what one cannot deliver and never lie. That is a factual of such veracity he cannot skip over, walk around or dodge.
He has in short order alienated all of those who did not vote for him but had hoped that he would govern from the political center. His prior Iraqi policy of immediate disengagement has disappeared in favor of the Bush policy; he has summarily ordered 17,000 more troops to Afghanistan. The financial markets are not only disenchanted but downright hostile to his economic policy and have declared, by their actions, his stimulus package ineffective. His treasury department has yet to define with specificity a policy regarding the banking or mortgage crisis.
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Obama the Anointed One is Dead Wrong
By means extraordinary, as if foretold in the contextual of an ancient Homeric narrative, the protagonist confronts a series of heretofore invincible dragons. Obama the Inexperienced and Untested; faced and defeated the dragon of the highly improbable, sometimes known as the dragon of it will never happen and along with the dragon of against all odds he submits this nation's electoral to his affirmative as President of the United States. Achilles would have been proud and envious of Obama's recent achievements.
His disciples declare his brilliance. Noting how well he speaks the faithful find comfort in his continuance of electability because they know that rhetoric trumps substance; besides, few of the listeners and viewers understand the workings of high finance, global economics nor do they find particular interest in military dynamics, strategy and tactics as such effects and reflects on American's international obligations. It is so much easier to simply listen and obey.
Relearning Old Lessons at Our Own Expense
Although sanitizing history in service to political goals is a timeworn practice of those who lack confidence in their ideas, every political season it's dressed up in new garb as though it was opening night on Broadway. This time around it's the Democrats who are reanimating the New Deal of the 1930s to support their $1 trillion spending bill, arguing that only through massive federal spending can we reinvigorate the economy, in the same manner, so we're told, that FDR did some seven decades ago.
For a refresher course on the New Deal there's no one better than Amity Shlaes, and her piece at Bloomberg.com brings needed sunshine to the dark falsehoods peddled by Democrats. Her conclusions are that "more pro-growth strategies, especially low taxes on business, less aggressive labor law and consistent regulation, would have brought recovery sooner in the 1930s, and would likewise do so today."
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A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Post Partisanship
Changing the way Washington does business won't be easy or quick.
A funny thing happened on the way to a post-partisan Washington. The Democratic House decided it didn't need to be post-partisan because it had the votes and the Republicans decided that they could play all the worst partisan games with the stimulus and Barack Obama would not be able to fight back without seeming to go back on his promise.
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Is McCarthyism Making a Comeback?
A certain one-note politician from the state of New York is angered by the fact that her governor selected Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to replace Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the U.S. Senate. Rep. Carolyn McCarthy, a fanatical gun control proponent who represents Long Island in Congress, is upset at Gov. David Paterson's choice because Gillibrand, who was beginning her second term as an upstate New York congresswoman, is a card-carrying member of the NRA.
Such a membership is apparently anathema to Ms. McCarthy, who is also a Democrat. In fact, she finds it so completely unacceptable that she now plans to challenge Gillibrand in a primary in 2010, when Gillibrand will be up for re-election to the Senate. McCarthy, who never previously articulated a desire to run for the Senate, now says she would even be willing to give up her seat in Congress to pursue this quest.
President Obama: Governing Versus Campaigning
For many Republicans, the weeks leading up to today's inauguration of President Obama reflected the residual bitterness of loss as the nation began adjusting to a new party in power. Many on the right, at the national and local level, seemed to harbor a sense of mild scorn that Mr. Obama was about to be sworn in as president.
For reasons as complex as they are immaterial to the immediate future, many saw this man as a political neophyte with a thin resume, whose prescient political instincts made him untouchable. However, close observers also noticed the post-election foreshadowings of moderation. That, in itself, is not atypical, but for Obama it revealed not merely a predisposition towards centrism, but a sense of shared vision for our Republic that may surprise even conservatives.
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Campbell Brown's Bias and Bull
In her commentary on Monday night, CNN's Campbell Brown harshly criticized President George W. Bush for his administration's response in the wake of hurricane Katrina in 2005. First of all, Brown, like many other mainstream journalists, is not qualified to comment on anything. It should be obvious to even the casual viewer that she severely lacks in-depth knowledge of the issues she covers, so she should be keeping her opinions to herself.
And to claim that her opinion is not debatable is the height of arrogance. But more importantly (and ironically), her remarks reveal that she is apparently full of a lot of the bias and bull that she claims her program eschews.
Economics--the infantile science
At the start of the 21st Century, it shouldn't take a Nobel-Prize-winning mind to understand that all dynamic systems need regulation in order to function and last.
The first steam engines ran away with themselves and blew up. Engineers came up with a simple, elegant, and totally non-controversial solution. They added a governor, a device that throttled back the flow of steam into the engine when it revved up too much.
Are Americans Ready For A Depression-Era Sense Of Sacrifice?
It's been observed that a voluntary sacrifice is the height of virtue but produces lessons with an abbreviated half-life. In contrast, a forced sacrifice requires little virtue but its lessons are nearly eternal, written as they are in our psyche with indelible ink. With those caveats in mind, we examine Gregory Rodriguez' recent op-ed in the Los Angeles Times, which makes the remarkable case that Americans are eager to prove themselves as worthy as the generation that struggled its way through the Depression.
Citing A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life as the timeless transformational artworks that pressed the angels of our better nature into service, Rodriguez argues that our current economic woes offer a unique opportunity for us to "retrieve some moral clarity." He also quotes Barack Obama, who, correctly recognizing a seminal political moment, has stated that "This country needs a sense of national purpose," and that "it's time for a new Greatest Generation."
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Should a White Person Get Hillary’s Senate Seat?
Now that Hillary Clinton is set to become the next Secretary of State, who should New York Gov. David Patterson choose to replace her in the U.S. Senate? What if a white congressman from New York insisted that Patterson select a white person because Hillary is white? I bet there would be outrage from all parts, and rightfully so.
However, Illinois Congressman Bobby Rush, a former member of the Black Panthers, is pulling a similar stunt and few seem to be complaining. He says Illinois' governor (possibly the successor of current governor Rod Blagojevich, who is now facing federal corruption charges) needs to select a black person to move into the vacated Senate seat of President-elect Barack Obama.
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