"Obama Declares War on Investors, Entrepreneurs, Businesses, and More"

So says Larry Kudlow:

Let me be very clear on the economics of President Obama’s address to Congress and budget. He is declaring war on investors, entrepreneurs, small businesses, large corporations, and private-equity and venture-capital funds. That is the meaning of his anti-growth tax-hike proposals, which make absolutely no sense at all — either for this recession or from the standpoint of expanding our economy’s long-run potential to grow.

Raising the marginal tax rate on successful earners, capital, dividends, and all the private funds is a function of Obama’s left-wing social vision, and a repudiation of his economic-recovery statements. Ditto for his sweeping government-planning-and-spending program, which will wind up raising federal outlays as a share of GDP to at least 30 percent, if not more, over the next ten years.

This is nearly double the government-spending low-point reached during the late 1990s by the Gingrich Congress and the Clinton administration. While not quite as high as spending levels in Western Europe, we regrettably will be gaining on this statist-planning approach.

Study after study over the past several decades has shown how countries that spend more produce less, while nations that tax less produce more. Obama is doing it wrong on both counts.

And as far as middle-class tax cuts are concerned, Obama’s cap-and-trade program will be a huge tax increase on all blue-collar workers, including unionized workers. Industrial production is plunging, and new carbon taxes will prevent production from ever recovering. While the country wants more fuel and power, cap-and-trade will deliver less.

Obama’s tax hikes will generate fewer revenues and lower economic growth. Yes, the economy will recover. But Obama’s rosy scenario of 4 percent recovery growth in the out years of his budget is not likely to occur. The combination of easy money from the Fed and below-potential economic growth is a prescription for stagflation. That’s one of the messages of the falling stock market.

Essentially, the Obama economic policies represent a major Democratic party relapse into Great Society social spending and taxing. It is a return to the LBJ/Nixon era, and a move away from the Reagan/Clinton period. House Republicans, fortunately, are 90 days sober, as they are putting up a valiant fight to stop the big-government onslaught and move the GOP back to first principles.

Noteworthy up here on Wall Street, a great many Obama supporters — especially hedge-fund types who voted for “change” — are becoming disillusioned with the performances of Obama and Treasury man Geithner. There is a growing sense of buyer’s remorse. Well then, do conservatives dare say: We told you so?

It's a start. After the election, I wrote about silly conservatives, like Bill Bennett and George Will, who seriously thought Obama would act as a moderating influence on the Dastardly Duo of Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi> They thought that Obama was such a savvy pol that he'd refuse to rush to the left because he knew that it wouldn't work and it'd backfire on him. Nevermind that he was the most liberal Senator and steeped in socialist radicalism his whole life, he would triangulate like Clinton did.

Well, we see how all that worked out. Morons.

Obama is ruling like the fascist despot he is, but the real question is who is going to step up and admit that they were suckered by him? Will Oprah call The One onto the carpet for being a charlatan like that "Million Little Pieces" author she shilled onto the best-sellers chart or will she silently sit in approval as he turns America into Soviet Amerika? (I'm guessing "B".)

You Doing a Heck of a Job, Jenny G!!

Michigan's unemployment rate leaps into double-digits, at a nation-leading 10.6%, over three points higher than the national rate. Michigan has been in a one-state depression for years, lagging behind when the nation's economy was improving, and not leading the downward plunge that the Democrats' fiscal shenanigans have wrought.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm is a hype act so dazzling when she was first elected that people were seriously talking about changing the Constitution to allow this Canadian interloper to run for President. Within a couple of years, she was so obviously a failure that such talk ended, but what did the Stupid Party do? They ran a stiff, awkward, rich, white guy (Dick DeVos) who was a very successful businessman (Amway) but was easily taken down by the most vanilla class-warfare tactics Jenny and the Dems could use against him. "You don't want a rich guy to be Governor, do you?" was the totality of their argument and he, being a typical weak sister, just sighed and murmured that he was "disappointed" that Jenny would say mean things about him and LOST!

Sound familiar? That's the Stupid Party playbook: Run a decent, but timid chump who can't bring himself to loudly fight back when smeared by the Dems, who then loses. Nice guys finish last. Cheaters always win. The Dems cheat and thus win.

And we lose.

How The UAW Work Rules Have Killed The American Auto Industry.

If you want to get liberals all riled up, all you need to do is say anything against unions. Nevermind that liberals are elitist sh*tbags who sneer at Joe Six-Pack types for not being as grease-free as they are, with their soft hands and bodies toned by trainers, not actual hard work; they fancy themselves (and unions) as champions of the Little Guy. Bah.

I know people who are auto workers - a good friend is also involved in union activities - and have heard plenty of stories like the ones related in Detroit’s Downturn: It’s the Productivity, Stupid, so before the Anonymous Pussies who fill their diapers in the Backtalk section waste their time hammering spittle-flecked missives that will be either rejected or torn to pieces for my and sane readers' amusement: Stop!

A snip:

But almost all of the discussion, when it comes to UAW culpability, has been on wages. The even larger issue, though, is the elephant in the room that seemingly no one discusses, even when given a political opportunity...The issue isn’t wages — though those are a problem — so much as work rules. UAW work rules, which have evolved over the many decades since the passage of the Wagner Act, are the biggest reason that General Motors is uncompetitive with its non-union American counterparts.

What are work rules? They are agreements negotiated in the contract between management and the union covering how the employees are to be classified, how many breaks they get, how much time off they get, who can do which jobs, how discipline is to be enforced, etc. The goal of the rules is not to enhance productivity or production quality. It is to provide opportunities for featherbedding, increase numbers of (overpaid) jobs for union workers, and minimize how much they have to actually work. This is important because it’s at least in theory possible that the industry could be making money even at current wages, if they could be provided with the flexibility to increase worker productivity. When you blame management for the quality and cost problems in the auto industry, first consider stories like this:

As a former supervisor of UAW workers at a GM facility, I will say that poor management and union malpractice made the Detroit Three uncompetitive long before the government sent in their arsonists.

To put it bluntly, the UAW takes the hard-earned money of the best workers and spends it defending the very worst workers while tying up the industry with thousands of pages of work rules that make it impossible to be competitive. And the spineless management often makes short-sighted decisions to satisfy the union and maximize immediate benefits over long-term sustainability.

The strength of the union and the weakness of management made it impossible to conduct business properly at any level. …

I supervised a loading dock and 21 UAW workers who worked approximately five hours per day for eight hours’ pay. They could easily load one-third more rail cars and still maintain their union-negotiated break times, but when I tried to make them increase production ever so slightly they sabotaged my ability to make even the current production levels by hiding stock, calling in sick, feigning equipment problems, and even once, as a show of force, used a fork lift truck and pallets and racks to create a car part prison where they trapped me while I was conducting inventory. The reaction of upper management to my request to boost production was that I should “not be naive.”

Read it all and check out the comments that amplify the points. Also read Michael Barone's column which fills in more blanks and shows that instead of bailout cash, the Detroit 3 need to be forced into Chapter 11 and at that time, the UAW must be crushed and its leech-like corpse pried off the economy. Make it happen!!!

The UAW Bailout In 1000 Words.

While this slags the Detroit Three (formerly the Big Three, not to be confused with the Furious Five) and leaves the greedy bastards of the UAW unscathed, it's pretty funny.



Hardy-har, right? Now try laughing after you read about the UAW’s gold-plated golf course. Still laughing? My friend just got cashiered from his gig at one of these companies due to the cutbacks thanks to the Democrats fiscal treason. Since the public was ignorant and afraid, they voted in MORE Dems last month, so it's only going to get worse. Yay, democracy! Pffft.

UPDATE: Unlike the pitiful commenter who embarrasses himself badly in the Backtalks, cartoonist Michael Ramirez sees the UAW's culpability in the Detroit Three's dire straits:

The Cluelessness of Michigan Mirrors the Ignorance of a Nation.

Two years ago, Michigan re-elected Jennifer Granholm to a second term as Governor despite her failed leadership in her first term that kept the state in a one-state Depression, with unemployment running over 2.5% higher than the national rate. When she was first elected, she was such a rising star, there were noises that the Constitution would have to be amended to allow this golden goddess the opportunity to run for President. (She's Canadian.) After a couple of years, she'd submarined the state so thoroughly that no one ever mentioned it again.

Her opponent was Peter DeVos (of the Amway family) and he was a boring white businessman with a proven record of corporate success who just didn't connect with voters. (Sounds a lot like Mitt Romney, no?) Banking her reliable union support, Granholm was re-elected and continued driving Michigan into the dirt. After four years of utter failure, the voters rewarded her with four more years - the first half have been more of the same.

Since the Democrats took over Congress two years ago, the housing market has collapsed thanks to the Dems blocking of Fannie/Freddie regulation; the economy has tanked; fuel prices doubled (and fell back only when people stopped driving); and Congress' approval rating is in SINGLE DIGITS, less than a third of the much-slagged Dubya. The country's dire economic straits are mostly thanks to the liberal Democrats who are the puppets of the Big Money on Wall Street and what have the voters done?

THEY'VE SENT EVEN MORE OF THEM TO WASHINGTON!!!

If you went to a restaurant a couple of times and got sick with food poisoning each time, would you go back again AND take some friends with you or would you find someplace else to eat? (Duh.) Despite the facts, an ill-informed and frightened* electorate has gone back for seconds. If they end up choking and/or starving to death as a result, what will they do then? Vote for thirds?


* It's funny how the knock on Team Dubya by the Left was that they were using fear (of terrorism) to score votes, only to see the Left use economic fear to scare voters into rushing into Uncle Sam's smothering clutches. On NBC News' coverage, they proclaimed it as a triumph of "hope over fear". Are you f*cking kidding me? They used the public's legitimate fears over the economy as their ticket to power. That the Dems are the cause of the crisis is just the perverse cherry on top of the sh*t sundae.

Defining Recession Down.

The economy contracted a tiny .3% in the last quarter and the media is calling it proof that we're in a recession. Traditionally, a recession was marked by two consecutive quarters of economic decline, but in the Newthink times we live in, the need to elect fascists to power requires the R-word to be slung around even when the economy was still growing. Of course, if Obama is elected Fuhrer, we'll be skidding rapidly past the R-word to the D-word.

A Fun Way To Spread The Wealth (and Piss Off Your Server!)

In the comments of Michelle Malkin's report about the tape of Obama proclaiming that the Supreme Court needs to handle wealth redistribution - silly me, I was taught in school they were to interpret the laws passed by the legislative branch for Constitutionality - was this great comment by a "Wade":

Today on my way to lunch I passed a homeless guy with a sign that read ‘Vote Obama, I need the money.’ I laughed.

Once in the restaurant my server had on a ‘Obama 08′ tie, again I laughed–just imagine the coincidence.

When the bill came I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Obama redistribution of wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need–the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight.

I went outside, gave the homeless guy $5 and told him to thank the server inside as I decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful.

At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn even though the actual recipient was more in need of the money.

I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application

Heh. Indeed. I tipped the barmaid at my gig the other night $1.50 on a $3.50 beer because she was dressed like an anime prostitute and not wearing Obama-supporting garb. If I hit someone like Wade's server, though, I'll give this a try because I know a (literally) starving artist who could use the cash. (I pre-paid a painting I've commissioned cuz she was so strapped.)

"Hey, chumps: Why are you still paying your mortgages?"

That's what Michelle Malkin is asking:

I can’t tell you how disgusted I am by the apathy over the Paulson/Bush/Pelosi/Reid wealth confiscation program in full swing. Every time I hear someone yammering on the radio or TV about Barack Obama’s plans to socialize this or that, I want to hurl.

The bank nationalization Trojan Horse was brought to you by a GOP administration.

Both presidential candidates have enshrined mortgage “rescues” and foreclosure prevention as primary government goals.

Both candidates supported the $25 billion automakers’ bailout. And now GM wants more.

The Democrat Congress and the GOP White House are pursuing home ownership/preservation at all costs.

I said back in January that the stigma of default was gone.

Peter Schiff, founder of Euro Pacific Capital, writes in the San Diego Union Tribune today. He rips the perverse incentives of the bailout orgy:

Just stop paying your mortgage

If you are a mortgage holder who is either struggling with crushing payments, bitter for having overpaid for your home during the bubble, or who has extravagantly refinanced when prices were rising, the government’s landmark $700 billion bailout package has an important message for you: stop making your mortgage payments . . . immediately. Furthermore, if you believe that with some planning and sacrifice you may be able to meet your mortgage obligations, the government’s message is clear: relax, don’t bother.

While angry voters have labeled the package as a bailout for Wall Street, it is more akin to a “Get out of Jail Free” card for anyone who acted irresponsibly during the boom.

Atlas is going to shrug. It's only a matter of time before the producers stop being bullied by the politicians into supporting the moochers. Of course, Fuhrer Obama will just nationalize all personal wealth in the name of social fairness - you know, to "spread the wealth" around - and fill the grasping hands that put him in power. (After the crony-packed bureaucracy takes its cut first, natch.)

Starbuck's Wastes Water (and I Don't Mean Just Making Overpriced Coffee!)

Why isn't Al Gore making a fuss about this?

The giant coffee chain has a policy of keeping a tap running non-stop at all its 10,000 outlets worldwide, wasting 23.4 MILLION litres a day.

That would provide enough daily water for the entire two million-strong population of drought-hit Namibia in Africa or fill an Olympic pool every 83 minutes.

Every Starbucks branch has a cold tap behind the counter providing water for a sink called a “dipper well”, used for washing spoons and utensils.

Maybe if they weren't running up the water bill so high they could charge less than $5 for a coffee.

Vote Obama For Depression!

The Treason Media is carrying the spin that the bailout vote failure is all the Stupid Party's fault and the Dems are just innocent widdle babies in this mess. Just as Dubya was inarticulate, so is McCain, as noted on the Corner:

I'm guessing McCain couldn't make the statement himself because he was working on his next speech on earmarks. (Instead of talking about that Dems-Raines-defense-hearings YouTube that has been going around, McCain attacked earmarks again today, at a rally at Capital University in Ohio.)

Later, another Corner post had this sober note:

Just thought I’d send some thoughts from small-business America. My husband’s business is a canary in the coalmine. When tax policies are favorable to business, he hires more guys, buys more goods, etc. When he is taxed more heavily, he fires people, doesn’t buy anything new, etc. Well, duh. So, at the mere thought of a President Obama, he has paid off his debt, canceled new spending, and jotted a list of whom to “let go.”

The first of the guys will get the news tomorrow. And these are not minimum-wage earners. These are “rich” guys, making between $200,000 and $250,000 a year.

My husband will make sure that we’re okay, money-wise, but he won’t give himself a paycheck that will just be sent to Washington. He’ll make sure that he’s not in “rich guy” tax territory. So, he will not spend his money, not show a profit, and scale his workforce down to the bare minimum.

Multiply this scenario across the country and you’ll see the Obama effect: unemployment, recession, etc. No business owner will vote for this man, but many a “middle-class worker” will vote himself out of a job. Sad the Republican can’t articulate this.

Sad? No, TRAGIC!

Video Proving Dems Covered Up Fannie/Freddie Problems!

The current meltdown is due to bad loans given to people who didn't qualify and the banks that are now stuck with them. In 2005, Republicans wanted to get some regulations in place, but Dems blocked it - Dems like Rep. Barney Frank and Sen. Chris "I got a sweetheart mortgage from Countryside and the most campaign cash from Freddie and Fannie" Dodd - and combined with Clinton era pressure to give poor minorities loans they could ill-afford they set this snowball a-rollin'. Of course, you can't mention these inconvenient truths because they're politically incorrect and racist and blah-blah-woof-woof. Nevermind that it's the Truth; the Truth is out of style.

The spin from the Dems as promulgated thru their allies in the Treason Media is that this is all the Stupid Party's fault, but as this video show, that's 180 degrees opposite from reality. Watch it and compare to what the TM spoon-feeds you on the news this evening.

Why $700 Billion For the Bailout? Because It Sounded Scary.

This bailout deal is bullsh*t. The Dems are the cause of it, but the Stupid Party is being assigned the blame and the taxpayers are getting stuck with the bill while the Dems who created this mess glide away scot free. No one sane think the tab will be *only* $700 billion, but where did that number come from in the first place? From their arses:

"It's not based on any particular data point," a Treasury spokeswoman told Forbes.com Tuesday. "We just wanted to choose a really large number."

They made it up to be sufficiently ginormous to frighten everyone into rapid action.

And it worked.

Jeez.

(h/t Malkin)

Ladies Night In Nuremberg (aka DNC Nite #2)

Live-blogging and updating as needed:

• Tonight is Hillary Clinton's night at the Obamessiah Coronation and they've got a lineup of shrieking harridans on parade. Are there any less happy, more shrill, angry people than liberal women? (OK, liberal guys are pretty whiny bitches, too, I suppose.) The Governor of Arizona - the one who most voters probably thought was the singer from Concrete Blonde - is on now braying about CHANGE and HOPE and BLAH and WOOF. Yeesh.

• I wonder if they'll mention how feminism has devolved from a quest for equal rights to a militant jihad to protect only one right: the right to murder their babies at any time; up to, including, and even after birth? I've written before about how the hardcore pro-lifers don't seem to understand that forcing women to bear unwanted children is a form of slavery, so stow any knee-jerk impulses to comment that I'm some sort of brute. In some cases, it's an extremely unfortunate decision that has to be made in tough circumstances. However, the inconvenient truth is that it is all-to-often used as post-conceptual birth control to avoid personal inconvenience, especially during swimsuit season.

Nancy Pelosi went on Meet the Press this week and blatantly lied about the doctrines of the Catholic Church, a faith she laughably proclaims herself to be an "ardent, practicing Catholic," and has been righteously smacked down by bishops and cardinals nationwide. Fortunately for her, the Treason Media is diligently not covering the story because they are in goosestep support for this unholy sacrament that is the cornerstone of feminism and fascist liberalism today. Only...wait for it...Fox News has mentioned Pelosi's heresy. There are plenty of pro-death churches - there's an oxymoron for ya! - Pelosi can attend that support her twisted view of God's teachings. The Church should excommunicate her.

• Just to show that it's not just shrill ladies, the male Republican mayor of Fairbanks, Alaska is on now spooging all over the Obamessiah. If he hadn't claimed to be a member of the Stupid Party, he is indistinguishable from the Dems yapping. What a maroon.

• Now the victim's parade continues with an aptly-named woman with the name of Craven who sounds like Forrest Gump and telling a tale of textile plant-closing woe. Does this woman know what happens to businesses under fascist state control? THEY FLEE OVERSEAS!!! Maybe they'll go to the glorious China that Barry O'Bama found so much better than the busted-ass lame country he seeks to rule. That would be some sweet irony, wouldn't it?

• Former Virginia guv'ner Mark Warner is giving the keynote and before he got into the red tofu for the herd, he was boring as heck about something. What perked me up was his barfing of one of the Left's favorite tropes, that Team Dubya "doesn't believe in science." This is code for "Jesus freaks believe in a Sky God and not our 'every man is his own god" religion and thus refuse to play god with aborted fetuses." This is because Dubya banned FEDERAL FUNDING of embryonic stem cell research. Got that? Using taxpayer money to kill embryos for Nazi-worthy experiments. Private research has not been banned, but the Treason Media omits that pesky fact in favor of the myth that Dubya hates Michael J. Fox and wants him to die because Jesus told him to.

We're told that all sorts of miracle cures will come if only we could abort and harvest enough babies. Uh-huh. OK, if there are cures then there are PROFITS to be made by the companies that find them, so why is taxpayer blood money needed to fuel the machine? Hmmmm? The Left believe that nothing good can come without government's intervention, but which branch of Uncle Sam created the iPod, the DVD, the Xbox, the phonograph, etc.? The same goofs who run the Post Office and DMV are going to raise Christopher Reeve from the dead if only they had the funds and fetuses? Yeah, right.

• Jonah Goldberg got some mail about Warner:

From a reader:

If Warner could make millions in the cellphone biz w/o a govt. program paid for by taxpayers, why can't the new energy entrepreneurs he's touting do the same w/o some Obamacash taken from the rest of us? Isn't his very STORY a testament NOT to big-gov nannystatism but to independent capitalism that is the root of Republican, not Democrat, politics?

Me: I wondered the same thing. Warner spoke well of how this country let him learn from his mistakes as an entrepreneur. That ain't the Obama way on economics, now is it?

Hey, guys, it pays to enrich your word power.

• Michelle Obama is being interviewed on PBS and she looks like she can't wait for this charade to be over. They've got her in a demure dress and she sounds tranquilized to keep her from breaking into her normal Angela Davis black rage persona. The front page the paper headlined "Michelle Obama tells Democrats 'why I love this country'", which begs the question, "If you really love your country, don't you think people would pick up on that fact and not require a loud, obviously insincere declaration of such?" The tape is out there: She thinks this is a "downright mean" country that she hasn't been proud of and fears will harm her husband. The Treason Media will sweep that down the Memory Hole and call you racist if you ask about it. Move along. Nothing to see here.

• The guv'ner of Massachusetts just scolded the Stupid Party for presiding over the largest expansion of government in ages. This is a valid criticism and high on my list of why I've told the Stupid Party to FOAD. But wasn't the knock on Dubya and the SP from Dems that they weren't spending enough on socialism to suit their desires?!? Which is it? Spending too much or too little?

• Hillary came out and fell on her sword for the Obamessiah. It was hilarious to see Bubba pretend to cry and bite his lip and mouth "I love her" when we know what a faithless asstackler he was and remains to this day. Hillary just barfed up the talking point that we are "borrowing money from the Chinese to buy oil from the Saudis." Um, how about drilling in America for oil, guys? NYET!!!! Socialist health care got name-checked in a torrent of boilerplate bullet points that came so fast that the audience didn't get to applaud her.

At one point, she baldly claimed that a total fascist takeover of all branches of government would bring economic prosperity. "We did it before with President Clinton and the Democrats and we can do it again with President Obama." Nice line, except it's a total lie. When Clinton and the Dems had it all between 1993-1995, the budget was projected to be hundreds of millions of dollars in the red well into the next millennium. Then something happened. Newt Gingrich and the Republicans - the REAL GOP, not the fake losers like Dubya et al who have destroyed the Party in the past decade - came in, forced fiscal discipline on the Big He and the economy boomed. And the Treason Media gave Clinton all the credit and the feckless douchebags in the Stupid Party proceeded to rush to the left in hopes that they would get the wet kiss of approval from the media. Epic fail, bitches!

All in all, Hillary gave a good performance of a pack of lies and encouraged everyone to support a naive radical Marxist who craves infanticide who will usher in the End Times. Thanks, babe.

• If Hillary was the Dem's candidate, I wouldn't be happy, but I wouldn't be terrified for the future of the world. She's a dishonest crook and a radical in her own right, but she's milquetoast compared to the pure evil that is the false Obamessiah.

• John Hinderaker at Power Line disagrees:

Hillary Clinton's speech tonight prompted just two thoughts.

First, her ignorance of economics is cosmic. Thank God this woman will never be President.

Second, her speech was a vivid reminder of why she lost. She was intensely annoying. You could just about hear the sound of television sets clicking off all across America. Good night, Hillary.

• Jay Nordlinger on The Corner noticed that the Dems are infantilizing our soldiers:

Do you notice that soldiers in Iraq are being kind of infantilized at this convention? They’re so often referred to as social-welfare cases — people in need of health benefits and so on. Delicate. Fragile. A mother was “worried about her child in Iraq.” Okay, he’s her child, all right. But he’s also a soldier.

The speakers I’ve heard don’t seem to want our soldiers to fight and win. They are simply “children” to be cared for, by Democratic programs.

That statement will probably be judged as harsh and McCarthyite, but I still think it’s true.

The Left, generally speaking, learned a lesson from Vietnam: They now “support our troops.” That has been the constant slogan of the last several years, “Support our troops,” even as the administration is reviled. Fine. But how about “winning the war”? Doesn’t that phrase sound about a thousand years old, and does it not reek with belligerence?

Ramesh Ponnuru concurred:

I agree with Jay. The Democrats have a way of talking about how much they support the troops that treats them as a victim group in need of subsidies, but rarely suggests that they have accomplished anything. Note that Michelle Obama closed her reference to the troops by talking about their need for mental health care when they get home. I'm all for mental health services for people suffering from PTSD. But the overall impression is that what the Democrats stand for is post-defeat therapy.

Nordlinger followed up:

Heard from a reader, who heard a fairly obscure Hollywood figure on the radio a few weeks ago. The man said, “Hollywood loves the troops as victims, not as warriors.” Our reader comments, “God, I love that line.” I know what he means.

I’m also reminded of elite elements of Europe — who liked America when it was down and bleeding, right after 9/11, but liked it much less when it stood up and fought.

Sounds about right. Tell ya what, Europe: When the Islamofascists are ready to slit your Continental throats, don't call. We won't be answering. (Though Obama won't help because he doesn't believe in standing up to fellow fascists.)

UPDATE: Charlie Rose has his usual all-liberal panel who think everything that happened tonight was wonderful and spewing the usual smears and lies about the current woeful Administration. (It drives me nuts that with all the legitimate knocks that can be dealt on Dubya and the Stupid Party, they persist in fabricating slams instead.) Predictably, the talk inevitably turned to the racism chatter; fairly bullying anyone who dares to find his magical brand of fascism unacceptable to put on a sheet. It got so ridiculous that the NY Times hack on the panel had to say, in effect, "yeah, Americans are stupid racists, but they aren't THAT bad racists as you guys are saying." He actually said that a white empty-suited naive radical Marxist who craves infanticide (note: he didn't say those exact words, but that's what he meant) would have problems, too.

How empty is the Left that they can't win without projecting their own racist white guilt upon everyone else? If John Edwards was about to pick up the nomination on Thursday and he had the same beliefs and close associations with racists and terrorists that Obama had - race-reversed of course - then sensible freedom-cherishing patriots would be terrified of the ramifications of his election. By trying to make opposition to their Anointed One an automatic ticket to being smeared as a racist, the Treason Media diminishes the sins of true discrimination in service of a hack political agenda. They so wish to be Pravda, they don't even understand what their wholesale slaughter of the Truth means in the long run. Considering the bratty juvenile mentality of liberals, this is no surprise, but it's still sad to realize it's so prevalent when it's so dangerous.

CFE: The Speech McCain Will Never Give

The Background: Michelle Malkin had an ad that John McCain is running against Barry "Just call me 'Lord'" O'Bama.



Michelle commented:

Good stuff.

Well, except for the part about McCain’s own weak, flip-flop-flippy record on drilling.

Sigh.

***

Allahpundit on the “Celeb” ad: “Surprisingly savvy.”

Based on the idea that it was a savvy move, I posted:

If McCain had the slightest bit of political savvy, he’d go to ANWR, see that it’s a wasteland and then make this statement:

“I have been opposed to drilling here because I was of the belief that it would be the same as drilling in the Grand Canyon or the Everglades, both national treasures that attract legions of tourists to visit. However, while the Grand Canyon hosts and average of five million visitors per year, last year the ANWR had only 880 visitors, an average of less than 2-1/2 people per day. There are no roads or resorts or attractions to visit.

As much as I share the desire of many to preserve as much of our wilderness in their pristine state, there are other concerns we have as a nation. Our economy is experiencing a slowdown and the cost of energy is hurting American families on a daily basis. They feel it when they pump gas, buy an airline ticket, buy groceries, or even order a pizza. The cost of energy is soaring due to the basic forces of supply and demand and as a global economy competes for limited resources, the price goes up.

While we must endeavor to develop new, clean alternatives to petroleum and dirty coal, we need to also expand our current supplies because the transition to the energies of the future won’t occur overnight and energy is needed now. It makes no sense to send $700 billion a year overseas to countries, many of whom do not like the United States, when we have untapped resources right here in America. It would be like living on a farm, but going to the supermarket for food and complaining about the prices.

Drilling in ANWR would only affect an area of about 2000 acres - the size of Dulles Airport in Washington D.C. It would create an estimated minimum of 250,000 well-paying jobs for American workers with the possibility of three times that. Polls show that 75% of Alaskans support drilling. Since they live here, they obviously are interested in protecting their environment and if they believe drilling can be done in an environmentally-sound manner, who are we in the Lower 48 states to tell them they are wrong?

My opponent and the Democrats have repeatedly blocked sensible proposals that would enhance our national security and provide relief to our citizens’ wallets and pocketbooks. They say that no benefits would come from drilling for a decade, but in the past few week we’ve seen the price of a barrel of oil fall $25 just because President Bush rescinded the Executive Order blocking offshore drilling. Not one more drop of oil has actually been produced, but the market has already responded, bringing a small measure of relief to American families. Imagine how much more the price will come down when we actually bring our natural resources to market.

It’s easy to be stubborn and do nothing rather than have to admit you were originally wrong. Just as I stood up to demand a change in the course of the Iraq War, supporting the surge that has brought us to within victory’s grasp; the surge my opponent refused to support and to this day refuses to acknowledge worked; I am now standing up to what I believed, but now I know was incorrect. My opponents will portray this change as a flip-flop or a cave-in to special interests like Big Oil. Neither could be farther from the truth, but I don’t care what insults they launch at me because I know this change will help America’s families, her economy, and her all-important national security.

While I have made a life delivering Straight Talk®, I have also heard the straight talk of you, the American people. You want us to tap our resources and be less reliant on uncertain foreign energy supplies. I have heard the people and I have visited ANWR and now I believe that to not extract the benefits or our God-given resources from our own lands would be a dereliction of duty that I could not bear to let occur to the land that I love so dearly and have acted as a humble servant to my whole life.

Thank you, and God bless America.”

But he’s not smart; he’s not savvy; he’s “freaked out about global warming”; and he’s in thrall to the Treason Media’s environmental extremism and antipathy to capitalism.

That speech and those actions would turn the tide for McCain and the Stupid Party. People would rally to their colors because they’d finally be acting in the interests of the people and nation and not their own timid self-interests.

That’s why we’re sooooooooooooo screwed.

This attracted several positive comments, including this from mom2jack:

Dirk, you just wrote a great McCain speech! You should post it as a comment on his site.

While I drafted my reply, someone else asked, "Why bother?" I replied:

mom2jack, if Team McCain is so bereft of ideas and sound thinking that they need a pseudonymous Internet poster to hand them a clue, then we’re in even bigger trouble than initially thought.

Sadly, McCain is a believer in ManBearPig and speaks the shibboleths of that fraudulent religion. Just as it would be anathema for us to renounce our personal faiths, McCain will not renounce his faith in man-made global warming and the passel of liberal canards that comprise the Catechism of these environment extremists and anti-capitalists.

For a sample of what passes for “deep Republican thought” (a double oxymoron, with the emphasis on the “moron” part) about energy policies, try to stay awake while reading this blather from the RNC Chairman, Robert M. Duncan. I think it’s about how Obama doesn’t have an energy policy and McCain does, but it’s so vaporous and busy with avoiding the fact that McCain is a ManBearPigist, it means little and will result in nothing.

My girlfriend was reading the paper a few weeks ago and saw a chart detailing the respective policy positions of Obama and McCain and remarked upon how similar they were on so many things. I told her that was the problem with this election. Instead of a clear choice between opposing viewpoints - liberal vs. conservative - we have a moderate liberal facing an extreme radical socialist, but the socialist looks really good on TV and is blessed with fawning airbrushed coverage by a fellow traveling Treason Media.

Just as in 2006, we’re going to be told that the lessons of the electoral results mean the opposite of what they really did:

* If Obama loses, it will because of the seething racism of bitter, angry, threatened white people. Our shame will be apparent to the world and we will decline even further in their view.

* If McCain loses, it will be because the public has rejected the religious extremism and cruel conservatism he stood for. Only by moving far, far, FAR to the left will they possibly be considered moderate enough to be trusted with a bit of power.

When that’s the way the deck is stacked, to expect McCain to be brave and buck his constituents in the Treason Media - and for that media to not distort and misrepresent what he says and does - is a hope that is much too high for even the hardiest rubber tree plant-moving ant to have.

C'est la whatever.

"If You Want A Recession, Vote For Obama"

Thus is the headline at Power Line referencing a story at the Wall Street Journal that runs the numbers on Barry "Just call me 'Lord'" O'Bama's socialist economic proposals which looks like this:

And means...

The top 35% marginal income tax rate rises to 39.6%; adding the state income tax, the Medicare tax, the effect of the deduction phase-out and Mr. Obama's new Social Security tax (of up to 12.4%) increases the total combined marginal tax rate on additional labor earnings (or small business income) from 44.6% to a whopping 62.8%. People respond to what they get to keep after tax, which the Obama plan reduces from 55.4 cents on the dollar to 37.2 cents -- a reduction of one-third in the after-tax wage!

But, hey, the Europeans love him and he's not old, so what's the problem? CHANGE! HOPE!

The tired lie about McCain - of whom I'm no fan - is that he's running for Dubya's third term. The sad truth about Obama is that he's looking to have Jimmy Carter's second term - with all its geopolitical terror and economic misery - but much, MUCH worse.