LSJ Blogs: People's Politics

So many issues, so little space

For a man who has been the most liberal Senator in Congress who implied during the campaign that he would govern from the middle, Obama has gone back to his roots.  After castigating W for being a secretive “imperial” President spending too much money, we have now seen the new improved W in the form of the community organizer Obama.  It is now clear that Obama will govern from the far left on the domestic front and from the center-right on foreign matters.

The Audacity of Nope

The stimulus package has been passed, the money is starting to flow from it, and the Obama Administration is working out its plan to save the banking industry.  Obama gives a powerful and inspirational speech to a joint session of Congress and Americans begin to have more confidence in the plan.  What is a Republican to do?  Do they rally around the president and pledge their support for the plan?  Heck, no.  Republicans do what Republicans always do- they say "Nope" to all Democratic proposals and then lie about them.  The response to last night's address was offered by the GOP's "rising star" Gov. Bobby Jindal, who did his best impression of Mr. Rogers on a lithium drip.  Gov. Jindal offered criticism for anything that wasn't a tax cut and scoffed at the idea of funding volcano monitoring.  Yessiree, nobody knows better than the Governor of Louisiana that monitoring potential natural disasters is bound to be a waste of money.  Jindal did nothing but pander to the right wing, stating that governement is the problem and tax cuts are the only solution. 

GM Bankruptcy

It’s not a matter of if, only when. General Motors Corporation, a pillar of the Lansing economy for a hundred years, is rapidly headed toward oblivion. There is no doubt they will take the UAW in Lansing with them. The choices for GM are pretty grim; a traditional Chapter 11 bankruptcy or a couple of “restructuring” options that “prepackage” or “cram-down” the way the company would “ re-structure.” But significant liabilities for UAW retiree pensions and health care, along with a severely depressed market for sales of new vehicles, appear to be insurmountable obstacles to a GM recovery. According to Sunday’s edition of the New York Times, economist Thomas Friedman describes GM as a “giant wealth destruction machine” (Start Up the Risk Takers, NYT 2/22/09). 

Obama's First Month

Now that we're a month into the new administration, we can start to see what went wrong and what went right so far.  I'd give Obama a solid B+, which of course is a great improvement over the 96 straight months of Fs that I would have given Bush.  There have been some missteps, but in the end he accomplished his main goal, getting an economic stimulus package passed by Congress.  He also made the commitment to closing the Gitmo prison, which has become a drag on the reputation of the US.

Democrats, Republicans and the Stimulus

The good news:  The Stimulus will improve the economy.
The bad news: The Stimulus will not measurably improve the economy.
Will the Republicans, by their opposition, or the Democrats by their support, benefit from the Stimulus Bill recently signed by President Obama?  The answer is: The Democrats - because the Stimulus Bill has lots of pork for the people who have the most votes in upcoming elections.

Crocodile Tears And A Feeding Frenzy

Well, it begins.  Last week the Governor came out with the 2010 state budget, and today the President signed the “stimulus” bill.  So, in the past week we’ve gone from seeing people, and groups crying crocodile tears to seeing those same people and groups gear up for a feeding frenzy.  I suspect it will take most of this year to see how this all comes out.

After the budget was released, the pouting, whining, and FUD showed up quickly.  MSU threatened to lay off 700 people if their funds were cut.  The LSJ carried an article about a children’s theater that was going to lose a third of its money because arts funding was being removed from the budget.  The theater director exclaimed that she knew times were difficult, but surely there must be somewhere other than the arts to cut the budget.  That’s the problem with spending money on government “programs”, instead of bare necessities.  The programs soon become entitlements.  And, everyone thinks their program is more important than all the others.

Ingham Republicans celebrate Lincoln/NAACP

As I've said since the inauguration, I am proud of Barack Obama the man while I disagree vehemently with Barack Obama the politician. His historic rise to the presidency was made possible by the efforts of millions of people who have fought for racial equality in America over the years.  That being said, I am proud that Republicans have been leaders in this fight all along as we advocate individual freedom and equal opportunities for all. My co-chair of the Ingham County Republicans is a wonderful black woman – Linda-Lee Tarver. She would be the first to tell you that the Republican Party's inclusion of black men and women goes way back.


Harns             Tarver

The Republican Party was started in 1854 as the anti-slavery party. Under the leadership of President Abraham Lincoln, Republicans fought to free blacks from slavery.  After the Civil War, Republicans amended the US Constitution to grant blacks freedom (13th Amendment), citizenship (14th Amendment) and the right to vote (15th Amendment).

An American's Voice

There have been a number of posts and comments on the People’s Politics complaining about either the democrats or republicans doing something stupid, wasteful, and ridiculous--you can fill in your favorite adjective.  There have also been a number of complaints about the body politic in Washington in general; very appropriately in my opinion.  An editorial by Norma White, who is apparently a retired network engineer for Southwestern Bell, from Amarillo, TX has been circulating around the internet.  Rather than just carp about Washington, she offers some concrete proposals to fix the problems; following are her comments. 

What Really Happened on 9/11?

I don't know the answer, but there's been some interesting debate on this question on a blog column that started on a different topic, and I wanted to give it a space of its own to continue.  I'm going to start it off by quoting part of one of the comments by one of our frequent commenters, Michael Schils.

He wrote:

"19 knife and box cutter-wielding Middle Eastern Muslim religious fanatics single-handedly hijacked four U.S. commercial aircraft and flew three of them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon while successfully confounding the most powerful intelligence and military force in the world.

A person who can swallow this without blinking would also likely have little problem with being told that the universe is less than ten thousand years old, and that a man once gathered and put two of every species on a boat.

BTW, you misrepresent my words when you say that I tried to "pass off the notion that 9/11 was not perpetrated by Muslim terrorists". My position is simply that we have been shown exactly the same amount of evidence that Muslims are responsible, as we have been shown that it was pulled off by somebody else. That amount of evidence is ... NONE!

But the lack of evidence doesn't seem to bother the faithful."

So what do you all think?

Ruminations again

How did Geithner and Daschle get away without paying penalties for their income tax troubles?

Would the republicans have had the guts to try to filibuster Daschle had he not “withdrawn” his nomination?  I suspect they would have confirmed him after posturing about his tax “mistakes.”  I wonder if Obama gave him a “push” out the door?