Stock market gives Obama's 1st month an "F"

Liz Peck at Wall Street Weekly has the story.

Did Democrats cover up Burris lies to get the stim bill passed?

Hmm. Right Wing Nuthouse connects the dots. You decide.

Headless body in a legless story

Mark Steyn explores the hypocrisy in the story of the moderate Muslim media mogul beheading his wife after she asked for a divorce: Mr. Muzzammil Hassan's hypocrisy -- and the hypocrisy of "journalists" who aren't reporting his hypocrisy. Doesn't fit the narrative, as they say.

Yes, John Anderson, there are indeed "2 Americas"

"There is a political America and an economic America — and the latter is showing no confidence in Obama right now." So says Jennifer Rubin at Pajamas Media. Read the whole thing.

An open letter to President Obama

The President spoke today at a high school one mile from where I live. Unfortunately, I was unable to get the time off work and had to miss the event entirely. (I'm Republican, but would have gone because he is a fact of history -- as are the Reichstag fire, the presidency of Jimmy Carter, and the Black Death, now that I think of it.) But I did write him an open letter, which I posted to Flickr, along with a photograph I had taken with the letter specifically in mind. It's rather lengthy, but the feedback I am getting suggests that everyone who has read it thus far has found it to be worthwhile, and full of my wisdom, or at least what passes for it. Read the whole thing here. (It is also posted on I miei cari amici.)

Big O's 2,000 point drop

Michelle Malkin points out that in just the first two months of Obama's presidency, the stock market has tumbled 2,000 points. Hope and change. Not.

Not exactly a confidence-builder

A whopping 38% believe the "stimulus" package will help the economy, according to Rasmussen Reports.

Likewise, consumer confidence has hit a record low.

President Obama spent a lot of political capital on a pork bomb that has turned out not to be a confidence-building measure. Oh well. It's clear the Dems didn't do it because their constituents (i.e., the voters) wanted it. So why did they do it?

Fearmongering and consumer confidence

WSJ op-ed says president has raised fearmongering to an artform.

There's publicity .. and then there's publicity

Life is full of irony.

An upstate New York man, Muzzammil Hassan, started a cable TV station 5 years ago to counter negative publicity for Muslims.

He was arrested last week for beheading his wife.

7 stimulus lessons for Dems

Glenn Thrush at Politico counts them up.

The "shock doctrine"

David Boaz opines.

An Obama cabinet nominee withdraws...

... but not for his tax problems -- but because he disagrees with the Boss.

How refreshing! A matter of policy and principle (not an exposure of greed and double standards).

NRO links to a discussion about Sen. (R N.H.) Judd Gregg's nomination and subsequent withdrawal.

A president can certainly appoint whomever he (or she) chooses, although it undercuts high hopes for bipartisanship that Gregg is a Republican. But it should perhaps come as no surprise that he has policy differences with the president.

800 Billion Reasons to Worry

Veronique de Rugy at Reason Online counts the ways.

Do Democrats have a corruption problem?

WSJ names names.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D NY): "those little tiny, yes, porky amendments. The American people really don't care."

Hmm. Maybe he's right. Maybe we're too depressed to care about a depression brought on by unbridled government spending on "little tiny" multi-billion dollar pork projects.

AP Fact Check: Obama has it both ways on pork

Wow! An MSM outlet fact checks the president! Shock of all shocks.

Stimulus: A History of Folly

James Glassman in Commentary:

The truth is that we have learned almost nothing about the use of fiscal stimulus since the Great Depression, and it is a fatal conceit to assume that we can hurriedly construct a fiscal policy that will produce the prescribed results today. Economists seem to admit this fact by advocating what they prefer anyway, for political or ideological reasons.

Read the whole thing.

Unfortunately, a crisis of confidence in our economic institutions and our economy in general has only been compounded by a crisis of confidence in our newly-elected president and the rest of our political leadership because of their panicked approach: there's no time to spare to throw a trillion dollars at the problem.

The current "pork frenzy" shows our politicians, led by our new president, are "over-stimulated." That thought only adds to the depression.

Obama: the man behind the curtain

Dorothy peered behind the curtain and saw the Wizard of Oz for what he was.


In an oped piece, "The Fierce Urgency of Pork," Krauthammer opines on the real Obama:

After Obama's miraculous 2008 presidential campaign, it was clear that at some point the magical mystery tour would have to end. The nation would rub its eyes and begin to emerge from its reverie. The hallucinatory Obama would give way to the mere mortal. The great ethical transformations promised would be seen as a fairy tale that all presidents tell -- and that this president told better than anyone.

I thought the awakening would take six months. It took two and a half weeks.

Read the whole thing.

Mitt Romney on the "government stimulus"

Former Massachusetts governor shares his opinions.

A taxing divide

Nathan Moore, commenting on Obama nominees who've had problems paying their taxes:

The message is clear, no matter how earnestly the president employs Newspeak rhetoric in a vain attempt to muddle it - there are two sets of rules, one for us, and one for them. If they truly believed there was one set of rules, the administration would have taken it upon itself to weed out the tax-encumbered nominees from the process, but they didn’t - and that speaks volumes.

Indeed.

Obama and "new politics"

The AP's report about President Obama's speech to House Democrats in Williamsburg, Va. is interesting.

First paragraph:

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) - Pushing Congress to pass his economic plan by next week, President Barack Obama implored House Democrats on Thursday to reject delaying tactics and political gamesmanship that often stymies legislation and keep a promise to voters who booted Republicans from power.

An indication that his "economic stimulus" plan is less popular by the day -- the president is "imploring" House Democrats to support the bill (that will come out of a conference committee -- if it passes the Senate).

"Reject delaying tactics and political gamesmanship"? This is the reporter's paraphrase. Let's try to assume, for the sake of argument, that it's a fair summary of the president's remarks.

Before we spend upwards of $1 trillion, we should reject the desire to actually examine what's in the bill as a "delaying tactic" -- and instead ram it through by next week? Responsibility and prudence are "political gamesmanship"?

What's the rush?

"They didn't vote for the status quo; they sent us here to bring change. We owe it to them to deliver."

Really! Support for him and his party translate into direct support for adding $ 1 trillion to government spending? I don't remember that being in the party's platform or one of candidate Obama's campaign promises.

"This is not a game," he added. "This is not a contest for who's in power and who's up and who's down."

Wait a minute -- I thought you just said you won, so there's no room for argument!

"We are not going to get relief by turning back to the very same policies that for the last eight years doubled the national debt and threw our economy into a tailspin."

Oh, OK - so let's triple the national debt and call it progress.

I didn't want to believe the critics who said Obama would move the country toward socialism. What did I know? Wow.

FDR v. Obama

FDR: "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
Obama: "Be afraid. Very afraid."

(Hat tip to Instapundit).

Michelle Malkin talks about the president's quick reversal on the politics of fear.

New era of (ir)responsibility

Jacob Scullum at Reason takes a whack at Obama's "new era of responsibility":

Last October, while campaigning in Toledo, Barack Obama called for "a new ethic of responsibility." The nation's economic troubles, he said, occurred partly because "everyone was living beyond their means," including politicians who "spent money they didn't have." In his inaugural address last month, Obama regretted "our collective failure to make hard choices" and heralded "a new era of responsibility."

Now President Obama, as one of his first priorities, is pushing a gargantuan "stimulus" plan that will add around $1 trillion to the national debt and cannot possibly work as advertised. Welcome to the new era of responsibility.

Read the whole thing.

Obama's stimulus plan as popular as Iraq war

Has 37% support in recent Rasmussen poll.

I'm no economist, but how does taking money from taxpayers in a weakened economy stimulate an economy? Wouldn't giving tax breaks to employers stimulate the economy? Just asking.

Katrina? Meet Kentucky

Where's FEMA? Where's Obama? Where's the media?

Read all about it -- at Pajamas Media (the blogger consortium formed after "60 Minutes" used forged documents in a story critical about President Bush's National Guard days -- the "guys in their pajamas blogging in their living rooms" derided by the mainstream media). Read the whole thing -- and the links in the PMJ story.

PMJ's lead paragraph:

"Last week a massive ice storm struck the heartland of America, leaving at least 42 dead and millions without power or water. Days later there are still over a million people in Kentucky who have no power, no water, and no communications. They could have to survive this way for weeks! The conditions are dire and getting worse, with some storm survivors carrying pails of water from creeks. Thousands more are living in shelters with no timetable for returning home. FEMA is nowhere to be found."

PMJ's conclusion:

"The fact that President Obama is 'living large' while Americans suffer is no lie. So where is the collective outrage over his callous disregard for the lives of those who reside in a state that does not worship 'The One' and which did not deliver any electoral votes last November? Where are the calls for investigations from the Congress? Perhaps the Democratic Party leadership is too busy sharing cocktails with the president at the White House to notice the ongoing tragedy in 'flyover country.' Or maybe they just share his contempt for the 'white people' living in those areas where people cling desperately to their guns and Bibles while their government ignores them."

Ouch.

No lobbyists at the White House, except ...

Obama, speaking of lobbyists when he was campaigning for president: "I don't take a dime of their money," he said, "and when I am president, they won't find a job in my White House."

According to the AP, it hasn't quite worked out that way.

UPDATE: From The New Editor:"At the dawn of the Obama Administration we have witnessed: four high-level appointees blow up over various issues, tax and otherwise (Richardson, Daschel, and Killefer get axed; Geitner stays); the appointment of at least 12 lobbyists to positions in the Administration -- in direct contradiction of campaign promises; a pork-laden economic stimulus bill without precedent in US history; and the reversal of campaign positions concerning controversial policies like rendition."

No arms, no legs, no worries: Nick Vujicic

Born without limbs, Australian Nick Vujicic is an inspiration.


When we fall, can we get up again?


A bit more about Nick's life: