Resurrection

Either by sheer ineptitude or by design, leadership (as most understand it) is not one of our president’s strong suits. We recommend that anyone waiting for Obama to make the first move not hold their breath. And why should the president trouble himself? By not acting - or only appearing to act - the stinkweed will still continue to bloom in in Michelle’s much-hyped White House garden.

In today’s WSJ there are two unsigned editorials relating to Obama’s policy regarding oil: he hates it, along with every other carbon based fuel. The Gulf oil spill introduced the opening chords of this multi-layered symphony. It gave the administration the excuse to declare a drilling moratorium. Despite being forced to rescind it at a judge’s order, this administration still hasn’t issued a single drilling permit, citing cut-backs in staffing and problems in deciphering the new regulations.

This is not the only time the Obama administration has chosen to drag its feet to achieve policy objectives. Since a judge declared the government’s health care plan unconstitutional, requiring the government to immediately cease its implementation, Obama has used every delaying tactic to circumvent the judge’s ruling. As in the drilling moratorium matter, it now finds itself in contempt of court rulings. But who would enforce it?

Setting the Middle East on fire also meets Obama’s objectives. Likely to drive up prices beyond endurance, the administration figures this to equate with a huge shot-in-the-arm for the fledgling alternative fuels industry…and, most importantly, ‘cap and trade’ legislation which would place a premium on energy usage to then be pocketed by favored constituencies - hence, wealth re-distribution, another policy objective high on the president’s list.

The entire field is in play; all the fuses are lit. All the president has to do is sit back and watch as the sacred cow dominos fall one by one.

I personally have trouble agreeing entirely with this analysis. There are too many steps involved, any one of which could put the ultimate objective ( so called energy independence) at risk. Not the least of which is that the alternative fuel bandwagon is still far from ready. But it does point to a target much closer: this, being America - to stop the blood flowing to America’s heart. If this can be achieved, by any means, America (as we know it) could be declared dead.

I maintain, that America is already dead. She can no longer defend herself in her present state while threats, both internal and external, abound. External aggression will not finish the job; i.e. strip the flesh off her bones. This will be done internally. The opposition in virtually every sector has already been eliminated. And no one from the outside will come to bury the body in accordance with respectful custom. Her one and only hope continues to be Israel which is under attack itself.

My one consolation is that the architects of this monumental crime will not be allowed to rest on their laurels. Whatever may be said of humanity, it does not celebrate murder.

As America is removed from the cross, a new spirit will sweep the world and the idea of ‘America’ will revive to guide it back into safe waters. It will signal a resurrection of sorts in which even the bad guys will have a chance for redemption, and the Mahdi will jump back into his well.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Sorry Larry... (Liberalism Is Not Dead)

There’s a reason they did health care. And they didn’t do it to have it repealed by the first no-name senator to come along in a now thoroughly disgraced Senate. Yes, all that Barrasso says about it is true on one level. But there are other levels behind it that support Obamacare and all else that Obama has done in his brief two years in office. My clue was the word “replace” (as in ‘repeal and…’). Possession is nine-tenths of the law. The libs control the narrative and will continue to do so. We, as the saying goes, have become chopped liver.

There are 11 years’ difference between my brother and I. So, when it came time for him to drive, it fell to me to teach him. I backed out of the driveway and gave him the wheel. So far so good. We went down Springfield and made a right turn onto Oakley. At the Beekman, I told him to turn left. That’s where the trouble started. He didn’t turn the wheel hard enough and we ended up on somebody’s front lawn. I asked him to back up and try again. He did, and smashed into a telephone pole, leaving a permanent ‘V’ in my newly chromed rear bumper. I had sense enough to end the lesson right there and then and told him to get out of the car.

First, we poisoned world financial markets by ignoring the elementary rules of capitalism in an effort to satisfy some utopian fantasy in which everyone is entitled to own a home. Then we drove our own markets into an accelerating nose dive with health care legislation with similar implausible promises. Next, we continue to pump money into places like Pakistan and Gaza, knowing full well that we are hated even more, precisely for doing so. And finally, we continue to maintain ethanol subsidies which puts food and fuel into the sharp competition within the same basket, reducing the availability primarily of food (world-wide) and sending both food and fuel prices through the roof. In India, the issue of food prices is currently poised to topple the present government. (Each of these topics is discussed in detail under different headings in this weekend’s edition of the WSJ. The lead editorial refers to our ethanol policy as ‘immoral’ as it is already taking a toll on the poor all over the globe.)

Most of our efforts are centered on the reduction of fossil fuel emissions which are said to promote 'climate change’. Even in light of the University of East Anglia e-mail revelations that exposed the whole thing as a hoax, we push on with cap and trade, fuel standards, ever mounting regulations on domestic coal and oil production, mercury light bulbs and what not.

While most other countries struggle to throw off the choke collar of unbridled socialism, we continue to make it tighter. Sure, there’s been an outcry against present policies. But it goes unheard among Washington elites. Liberalism is not dead, as many pundits after the last election proclaimed. It is now busy pursuing a scorched-earth policy, marching on an on over the wreckage of our economy, our agriculture, foreign alliances, and anything else that may have helped us in the past to achieve world class status.

Today, I read about Obama’s plan to increase government spending even further. Haven’t we tried that already? I’m sorry Larry (Kudlow), I just don’t see the silver lining in this scenario. How many dents and scratches have we yet to suffer before we hit the bridge abutment head on?

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

To Make It Seem It Never Happened

There’s no puzzle here. When, oh when, will anybody begin to understand that this is not some chess game between Republicans and Democrats where one of the kings is left standing and another game ensues? This is the endgame by which the very game board is consumed.

I feel I’m reliving the time right after the ‘global warming’ hoax was exposed. Have we walked away from it? Have we swept it in the ash can? No. We’re proceeding as if the incriminating data leaks never happened; ‘cap and trade‘, here we come! Or when Mohammed Atta and the gang flew into the World Trade towers. We seldom talk about it anymore. This doesn’t mean it never happened. Or when the Cheonan was sunk by the North Korea. We pretend that if we don’t say anything more about any of these things, they never happened; that we can be safe simply by forgetting.

Similarly, if the same faces (Reid, Pelosi, Frank, Schumer) continue to dominate the news, the midterm shellacking of Obama’s policies never happened.

Much has been made of the comparison of Obama to Carter. There is no comparison. Carter did his best - albeit incompetently - to serve his nation. They’re trying to say the same thing about Obama. But there’s a world of difference. Obama means to deliberately destroy us. For him the bad economy, the joblessness, the collapse of health care, the collapse of the dollar, the imminent collapse of Israel - all are victories. He means to go further. We still have further to fall. He means to go all the way - like a young communist/Islamist on his first date.

JB doesn’t get it; Meese doesn’t get it; nobody gets it. Yet the alarms are going off are all around. We won’t get it till after it’s happened. And even then, we’ll continue to argue over whose fault it was.

The time to do something is now. But 99% of the population still has its head in the sand; including Rush who opines that the best thing to happen to the Republicans is having Pelosi and Reid as the face of the Democrat party. This is the wrong way of looking at it. It’s not good to have them back. That’s why I despaired after the results of the elections were announced. The same game continues. The only thing that’s changed is the faces of the strawmen - who are now no longer Bush.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Joe Manchin Speaks Out: Cause for Celebration

JB makes no secret of the fact that he loves this ad. It takes on Obama and Democrats in two ways: (1) It rebels against a significant bellwether Democrat taking point, and (2) rubs sand in the eyes of those seeking to upturn the second amendment. Both issues taken together can be seen as a frontal attack on the party leadership by one of their own.

Joe Manchin’s effort should be celebrated and rewarded. It marks a break with Democrat orthodoxy. And, recognizing that what is facing this country cannot be solved by merely playing a numbers game - that change must come organically from within - it is important to note that Manchin is the first to speak out forcibly against the radical fringe that has co-opted his party for too long.

For nearly a decade, even while stipulating that the majority of Muslims means us no harm, we have been waiting for someone in the Muslim community to speak out against its radical fringe. While their reluctance to speak out can be understood, their silence nevertheless makes them accomplices.

Where Democrats are concerned, they now have the opportunity to rally around someone who has dared to speak out. I agree with John, it’s a watershed moment. Our fight is not with Democrats per se, most of whom love our nation as we do. It’s their silence that is vexing; their willingness to follow their leadership into the grave.

If we are to survive as a nation, we must root out the extremes and work together to solve our problems. We can no longer afford to depend on the woefully inadequate ‘R’ and ‘D’ shorthand to show us the way. (Note my use of the term ‘bellwether” in the first paragraph.)
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The Nobel Prize committee’s lurch to the Right re its awarding prizes to Llosa and Xiao-bo has veered Left again in announcing its economics prize. Peter Diamond, Dale Mortensen and Christopher Pissarides were rewarded for their “search theory” which seeks to couch the “new norm” of jobless recovery in new, more politically acceptable terms.

In doing so, they have provided cover for the misdeeds of the Obama administration. The new theory applies the meaningless, asexual term, ‘friction’ to the present economic crisis - such as to housing, trade (in general), and even to marriage - to spin and finesse what is already self-evident to most: that Keynesian economics does not work.

I might also note that Peter Diamond's nomination to a spot on the Federal Reserve Board has been held up by Republicans questioning his qualifications.

http://pkoelliker.blogspot.com/

Afghanistan: Too Failed To Fail

Let’s not forget, America too is too “failed to fail” - just like it is axiomatic in the Democrat (and to some extent in the Republican) Party where you have failure propping up failure. Drugs? No problem. Deficits? No problem. Illegal immigrants? No problem. Corruption? No problem. Etc. As always, the American taxpayer can be expected to shoulder the load. How much longer? Unknown.
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Little by little, the Left is exposed - like peeling an onion. This week, the article entitled, “America’s Ruling Class - And The Perils of Revolution” by Anglo M. Codevilla in The American Spectator was discussed widely on conservative talk radio. Yesterday and today, The Daily Caller in articles by Jonathan Strong exposes the MSM. These articles read in tandem pretty much lay bare the bones of what we’ve all been puzzling about, namely the spectacularly rapid and unfortunate rise of Progressivism in America.

Whether or not we can regard these developments as an autopsy is still to be determined. From where I sit, there’s still plenty of life left in the old carcass; still too many people determined to endorse all the wrong moves. Case and point: By all accounts, ‘global warming’ as a viable concern should long ago have been declared dead and buried. Yet, I find it still stirring. And we will likely be saddled with ‘cap and trade’ because of it - never mind that the data is fraudulent. It was never about ‘saving the earth’ anyway, as Codevilla explains. It was always about power and outright theft.

Such revelations would never have come to light under McCain (just as it never really happened under Clinton and the Bushes). It’s just that Obama has been clumsy enough to spill the beans. No doubt, Hillary will be called upon to save the day.

Will They Have the Guts?

China and America are in the process of trading places. Both are set to experience massive dislocation by significant segments of their populations. There will be blood on both sides. Indications are that the carnage on the American side will be greater primarily because America seems to have lost its identity. China has not. A second factor may play an even greater role: Whereas America seems resigned to continue its march toward atonement and subsequent obligatory punishment for past sins, China in general appears confident that its future remains bright.

Listening to Larry Kudlow, and anyone else who keeps talking about the November midterms as being our nation’s salvation, is starting to get on my nerves. Let me say categorically and unambiguously that the midterm elections - no matter how they turn out - will have absolutely no effect in stopping Obama’s hard left re-distributionist agenda.

Any legislation that a Republican-dominated congress is likely to advance will be immediately struck down by Obama’s veto pen. This would apply to any rollback of existing legislation as well as any legislation that can yet be expected to pass in the ‘lame duck’ session. We’ll be stuck with that. In many ways, the barn door is already wide open and the horses are long gone. There are numerous confiscatory tax increases in our immediate future that will absolutely cripple our already anemic private sector. More will surely be added during ‘lame duck’. Expect ‘cap and trade’ to pass; expect VAT; increased health care costs can be expected to add to our already insupportable deficits. Individual states will begin to default.

Republicans can shout all they want but they will not be able to do anything to change even one iota of the spending, tax policy, and regulations that are already in place. Add to this the fact that the president retains the use of the executive order in all matters; he will continue to make interim appointments and possibly even float a Supreme Court choice. Even if successive SC appointment are not approved for the remainder of this president’s term, it’ll make for devastating headlines, and the Court itself would now consist of eight. Not sure to what extent 4-4 decisions count.

Best of all, when things go wrong, as they surely must, Obama can and will blame Republicans.

Let me put this as delicately as possible: There is only one way we can get back on sane footing. And that is to impeach the president. A Republican congress may actually have the power to do just that. But will they have the guts?

People like Kudlow (which includes most of our media - right, left or in-between) are still assuming that the midterms will send such a powerful message that the White House will have to change course. Think again. Obama does not listen to messages; he does not play at politics in the usual sense. Obama has a dictator’s mentality. It is filled with rage toward any opposition. He will not rest until he sees this country destroyed or bent to his will.

No, my friends, we cannot survive another two years of this. We would end up like the Thanksgiving turkey left in the oven to defrost when someone decides to run the (oven) cleaning cycle without first checking if anything’s been left inside.

Corruption Doubled, Tripled and Squared

I’m talking about corruption with all its bells and whistles – CORRUPTION on the highest order.

At first our currency/economy was based on gold. Then we got rid of gold and based our currency/economy on productivity (the talent, sweat and hard work of our population). Next, we based our currency/economy on credit (future productivity).

Note that each step expanded the universe of money significantly. Clearly, the gold supply is finite as there is only so much of it to go around. A calculation involving human productivity clearly increased the amount of what can be termed ‘distributable value’ or wealth. Adding to this a calculation involving future productivity (i.e. credit) had the effect of increasing it even more. Each step expanded the opportunity for individuals to generate untold riches, even as the basis for these (first gold, then productivity and, finally, credit) became more and more illusory and, at the same time, less and less stable.

The latest scam to increase the universe of money once again is ‘cap and trade’ which would essentially base our currency/economy on air. Step one was to declare CO2 a pollutant. Step two involves charging everyone emitting CO2 a fee for the unpardonable sin of breathing; and, thus, move vast amounts of money into the pockets of the people who were in on the hoax. Governments are in on it; academe is in on it; banks and investment firms (GS, Fannie and Freddie) are in on it; computer companies (Google) are in on it; media; education; unions – anyone who has been tireless in promoting the deal did so with the promise of a big pay-off to follow. Chicago was to be the center for trading in carbon credits. Already an exchange similar to the New York Stock Exchange is all set up there and ready to go.

When the University of East Anglia e-mails were released to the public the scam was exposed, it drove a stake in the heart of a world-wide fiction. The Left latched on to it big time for they rightly assumed it would put an end to capitalism. The one-worlders under the auspices of the UN latched on to it for they could now envision their dream - the dissolution of all borders - as being within reach. The religious wing, the environmentalists, viewed it as their ticket to a pristine world without man-made pollution.

Corruption equals the absence of principles. Any human endeavor lacking principles is bound to fail. The West has been in the process of shedding its principles for a long time. We have now reached the point from which there is no way forward. We have reached the wall. The attempt to tax air was the last straw. Still, those committed to what was obviously a hoax persist. They will now be tempted to apply force to get their way. We’re in for some rough sledding, folks.

Drastic Alternatives

Barack Hussein Obama will have to decide what it is he wants to happen. Does he want the unemployment rate come back down to normal? We all assume he must want that - at least he says so. In order to do that, however, he would have to change his policies and admit he was wrong. He would have to abandon the idea of wealth re-distribution; reparations; central planning; single-payer everything. He would have to declare himself a friend of industry; capitalism. He would have to begin thinking in terms of American exceptionalism, which involves believing that what's good for America is also good for the rest of the world.

As there is no indication of our president yielding on any of these issues, I would guess the economy will continue to fight him for the remainder of his days. In normal times, under a more conventional president, we, the people, could expect things to improve after this current administration has been voted out. If, as many now suspect, the Republicans are in on it as well - and that we will be doing nothing by our vote except changing hats - our jobless malaise may well last indefinitely.

The key point to watch in all this is whether or not our government will hold off on ‘cap and trade’ legislation for as long as it takes to re-evaluate the science that’s driving the issue. (Remember, McCain was totally on board the ‘global warming’ bandwagon as well.) If not, America is screwed three days to Sunday and Americans should begin to consider more drastic alternatives.