As President Obama discovered when he tried to deliver his Memorial Day speech near Chicago last weekend: “when it rains, it pours.”
The mile-deep gusher now polluting Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico is a metaphor for the Pandora’s Box of miseries that seem to be raining on the nation and the world: European financial instability; Third World nukes; South American narco-states; the re-emergence of piracy; America’s unprotected borders, our persistent 10% unemployment rate, exploding government debt; runaway entitlements and public pensions; aging infrastructure; a health care system headed for bureaucratic sclerosis; and on and on…
Standing between us and this onslaught is the leader of the free world himself, Barack H. Obama, who, it is becoming increasingly obvious, is in way over his head. If you were Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would you feel comfortable knowing this White House has got Israel’s back? If you were Governor Jan Brewer would you be confident in the President’s ability, even willingness, to halt the hordes of illegals pouring across the Arizona border? If you were Governor Bobby Jindal would you sleep easy knowing this Administration might eventually, some day, perhaps support your request to build protective sand barriers between the advancing oil slick and valuable Louisiana fishing and wildlife waters? Not on your life. You don’t have to be a governor or a foreign leader to feel nervous. A lot of people are starting to worry.
Joining those of us getting worried is Barack Obama. But he’s got a lot more on his mind than developing an effective American energy plan, or Israel getting blown off the map, or helping the private economy recover. Part of what keeps the President awake nights is the fact that jury selection has begun in the Rod “Blago” Blagojevich trial, and a federal judge just cleared the way for White House chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel to testify.
Don’t think for a moment that it was a coincidence that President Obama abandoned the BP oil-rig mess to take a family vacation to Chicago last weekend. He didn’t travel back to the Windy City because it is a fair-weather paradise in the springtime, or because he missed the old Hyde Park home and his next-door neighbor Anton “Tony” Rezko. Besides, Rezko hasn’t lived next door for quite a while. He’s in a witness protection program, with Federal bodyguards keeping him safe.
Even in Chicago, where wiring legal outcomes is a political art form, this trial has to be making a lot of people nervous; among them the President of the United States, along with the Mayor, the current Illinois Governor, several US Senators and some members of Congress. Blago has made it clear that he doesn’t plan to go to prison quietly. He wants to be put under oath and tell his side of the story. Without a doubt, his side of the story will boil down to exactly this: Blago only did what everyone else was doing. Handing out jobs and selling Senate seats is what Chicago politicians do all the time.
Given the current flap over the Administration’s offer of a job to Pennsylvania’s Joe Sestak in exchange for his staying out the Senate race, and stories of a similar job offer to a Colorado politician we can understand the concern. Scratch the recently passed Health Care Reform Bill and you’ll find dozens more cases of job offers in exchange for votes. As this trial drags on who knows how many cans of worms will get kicked over.
As it turned out, it was Obama’s “vacation” to Chicago that resulted in the rain-soaked Memorial Day speech. This in turn led to the news footage that provided the picture worth a thousand words. There he was on our television screens; President Obama, grimly clutching his umbrella after the temperature suddenly dropped 15 degrees and the skies opened up in a mid-west gully-washer. It was all he could do to read the teleprompter and make himself heard over the rolling thunder.
The audience, hundreds of loyal Democrats, stood dutifully shivering in the rain. Many of them had, perhaps, seen Obama speak before, in better times, when he was full of dreamy promises about lowering the sea level, healing the earth and fundamentally changing America. We can only assume it began to dawn on some in the crowd, the smarter ones, just what kind of President we are stuck with for most of the next three years.
When it rains, it pours.
This essay was originally published on
June 4th, 2010 in American Thinker
Showing posts with label Jan Brewer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jan Brewer. Show all posts
Friday, June 4, 2010
Sunday, May 2, 2010
California Considers a Boycott of Arizona
Dude, what’s with California?
Leftists in Los Angeles and San Francisco are so hopping mad at Arizona that they are working themselves up into a boycott of that whole State. Democratic officials in California are seeking a way to cancel public contracts with companies based in Arizona. This is in retaliation for that state’s new law calling for the enforcement of federal immigration laws. These threats are concrete evidence that The Left has reached a condition of self-parody. There ought to be somebody in a position of authority who will think this through first.
The City of Los Angeles is on the verge of bankruptcy. They are not just broke; they’re in hock up to their chins. LA faces a nearly One Billion Dollar budget short fall. Scores of businesses have left the city due to high taxes and regulation. A significant part of the workforce has drifted into the “gray economy”, untaxed and working off the books. San Francisco’s condition is only marginally better. The City by the Bay is just Half a Billion Dollars in the red. It is hard to believe that taxpayers in municipalities in this kind of deep water would permit elected officials to waste time figuring how they can cancel contracts with Arizona businesses.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is why I believe the days of the Left are numbered. The Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God will not allow a belief system this dangerously silly to survive.
Let’s refer to our studies from City Contracts 101.
Customarily, when a governmental body seeks bids for a public contract, assuming officials are doing their jobs and bribery or insider connections are not a factor, it awards the contract to the lowest bidder. Assuming this is the case – and if it is not the case California taxpayers have more problems than they realize – it therefore follows that the cancelled contracts will have to be re-issued to higher bidders…at additional cost to taxpayers. Take that, Arizona!
This is what passes for thinking among California’s elected leaders. They are going to take economic revenge on Arizona and citizens of the Golden State will tally as collateral damage.
Officials haven’t been clear about exactly what Arizona goods they will be boycotting, hopefully incidentals of little importance. But you never know. I seem to recall reading that due to California’s environmental laws the state purchases much of its electricity from Arizona, from facilities like the Palo Verde Nuke plant near Phoenix.
Is California’s anger with Arizona so great that they are prepared to boycott Arizona electricity? Are increased brown-outs and more frequent rolling black-outs, euphemistically referred to by the state as “load shedding”, a worthy price to pay in order to keep the flow of illegals coming? (And the flow of illegal voters) How much inconvenience will Californians tolerate in support of this crusade? It’s nice to have lights at night. Those giant screen TVs drink up a lot of juice. And, summer is right around the corner and not everyone has airy beachfront property. It gets pretty hot in most of California. Will residents be willing to give up their air conditioners? And, what about Silicon Valley? What kind of impact will power shortages have on tech industries? Before biting the hand that feeds shouldn’t someone think about that?
And, then there is California’s perpetual water problem. With miles of Pacific coastline, California has a lot of salt water – remember the movie Chinatown? “Bad for glass...” – but it has very little fresh water. The state’s major source of water is the Colorado River – which flows through, wouldn’t you know it, Arizona. No matter how outraged California officials are, there is only so much bottled water that can be trucked in. While bottled water has become recognized as ecologically taboo, still, in the interest of punishing Arizona, will Californians be willing to fill their swimming pools with Perrier? That still leaves the problem of how to water their lawns and wash their cars. Again, did anyone consider this? There are no easy answers.
Here is what’s going on: Many Leftists had a great time in college. An all-warts picture of the United States was drilled into their heads. After graduation many of them moved directly into government jobs. Added to their disdain for America, many have little or no experience running things more complicated than ad-hoc student committees. Although some find their way into the Sunlight of Conservative-Libertarian-Capitalist Enlightenment, many are doomed to an existence trapped inside the box of political-activist thinking. Mentally they remain thoughtless teenagers, arguing with their parents one minute and asking for the keys to the car the next. A handy example is Oakland Mayor, the former Governor Moonbeam himself, Jerry Brown. He’s seriously considering getting aboard the boycott bandwagon -- and he wants to run for California governor again. In thirty years he’s learned nothing.
Once upon a time, these people could march on an Administration Building, block the doors in protest and shut an entire campus down. Now they are peppered throughout various levels of government.
California officials need to accept the fact that they have a duty to their citizens. They need to put childish things aside. Leave the protesting to the college kids.
But, if they simply can’t help themselves, here’s an idea: Any California official who wants to protest Arizona in a nice, harmless way that will leave taxpayers unmolested might consider making a guest appearance at a campus demonstration somewhere. There’s sure to be lots of cameras and, unlike the Tea Parties, the news coverage is guaranteed to be glowingly positive.
Out there in the land of “less is more”, my suggestion would be to give a speech denouncing Arizona -- and America, too, just for good measure. More talk is always a good thing. At the conclusion rip down the American flag, take out a pair of scissors and remove the 48th star. Then spray it with lighter fluid and burn it. Unless you accidentally set something else on fire, the flame will be small, so it will not add the air pollution. The message will be “it is better to light one candle than to enforce the law”. Touching, huh?
Guaranteed, you’ll make the news and you can feel good about yourself in the bargain.
This essay was originally published on May 1, 2010 on
The American Thinker.com
Leftists in Los Angeles and San Francisco are so hopping mad at Arizona that they are working themselves up into a boycott of that whole State. Democratic officials in California are seeking a way to cancel public contracts with companies based in Arizona. This is in retaliation for that state’s new law calling for the enforcement of federal immigration laws. These threats are concrete evidence that The Left has reached a condition of self-parody. There ought to be somebody in a position of authority who will think this through first.
The City of Los Angeles is on the verge of bankruptcy. They are not just broke; they’re in hock up to their chins. LA faces a nearly One Billion Dollar budget short fall. Scores of businesses have left the city due to high taxes and regulation. A significant part of the workforce has drifted into the “gray economy”, untaxed and working off the books. San Francisco’s condition is only marginally better. The City by the Bay is just Half a Billion Dollars in the red. It is hard to believe that taxpayers in municipalities in this kind of deep water would permit elected officials to waste time figuring how they can cancel contracts with Arizona businesses.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is why I believe the days of the Left are numbered. The Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God will not allow a belief system this dangerously silly to survive.
Let’s refer to our studies from City Contracts 101.
Customarily, when a governmental body seeks bids for a public contract, assuming officials are doing their jobs and bribery or insider connections are not a factor, it awards the contract to the lowest bidder. Assuming this is the case – and if it is not the case California taxpayers have more problems than they realize – it therefore follows that the cancelled contracts will have to be re-issued to higher bidders…at additional cost to taxpayers. Take that, Arizona!
This is what passes for thinking among California’s elected leaders. They are going to take economic revenge on Arizona and citizens of the Golden State will tally as collateral damage.
Officials haven’t been clear about exactly what Arizona goods they will be boycotting, hopefully incidentals of little importance. But you never know. I seem to recall reading that due to California’s environmental laws the state purchases much of its electricity from Arizona, from facilities like the Palo Verde Nuke plant near Phoenix.
Is California’s anger with Arizona so great that they are prepared to boycott Arizona electricity? Are increased brown-outs and more frequent rolling black-outs, euphemistically referred to by the state as “load shedding”, a worthy price to pay in order to keep the flow of illegals coming? (And the flow of illegal voters) How much inconvenience will Californians tolerate in support of this crusade? It’s nice to have lights at night. Those giant screen TVs drink up a lot of juice. And, summer is right around the corner and not everyone has airy beachfront property. It gets pretty hot in most of California. Will residents be willing to give up their air conditioners? And, what about Silicon Valley? What kind of impact will power shortages have on tech industries? Before biting the hand that feeds shouldn’t someone think about that?
And, then there is California’s perpetual water problem. With miles of Pacific coastline, California has a lot of salt water – remember the movie Chinatown? “Bad for glass...” – but it has very little fresh water. The state’s major source of water is the Colorado River – which flows through, wouldn’t you know it, Arizona. No matter how outraged California officials are, there is only so much bottled water that can be trucked in. While bottled water has become recognized as ecologically taboo, still, in the interest of punishing Arizona, will Californians be willing to fill their swimming pools with Perrier? That still leaves the problem of how to water their lawns and wash their cars. Again, did anyone consider this? There are no easy answers.
Here is what’s going on: Many Leftists had a great time in college. An all-warts picture of the United States was drilled into their heads. After graduation many of them moved directly into government jobs. Added to their disdain for America, many have little or no experience running things more complicated than ad-hoc student committees. Although some find their way into the Sunlight of Conservative-Libertarian-Capitalist Enlightenment, many are doomed to an existence trapped inside the box of political-activist thinking. Mentally they remain thoughtless teenagers, arguing with their parents one minute and asking for the keys to the car the next. A handy example is Oakland Mayor, the former Governor Moonbeam himself, Jerry Brown. He’s seriously considering getting aboard the boycott bandwagon -- and he wants to run for California governor again. In thirty years he’s learned nothing.
Once upon a time, these people could march on an Administration Building, block the doors in protest and shut an entire campus down. Now they are peppered throughout various levels of government.
California officials need to accept the fact that they have a duty to their citizens. They need to put childish things aside. Leave the protesting to the college kids.
But, if they simply can’t help themselves, here’s an idea: Any California official who wants to protest Arizona in a nice, harmless way that will leave taxpayers unmolested might consider making a guest appearance at a campus demonstration somewhere. There’s sure to be lots of cameras and, unlike the Tea Parties, the news coverage is guaranteed to be glowingly positive.
Out there in the land of “less is more”, my suggestion would be to give a speech denouncing Arizona -- and America, too, just for good measure. More talk is always a good thing. At the conclusion rip down the American flag, take out a pair of scissors and remove the 48th star. Then spray it with lighter fluid and burn it. Unless you accidentally set something else on fire, the flame will be small, so it will not add the air pollution. The message will be “it is better to light one candle than to enforce the law”. Touching, huh?
Guaranteed, you’ll make the news and you can feel good about yourself in the bargain.
This essay was originally published on May 1, 2010 on
The American Thinker.com
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
The US is Not "Like Nazi Germany"
Oh, Brother.
I just heard a radio sound bite of some anti-anti-illegal immigration protester claiming that America is like Nazi Germany: We are putting up a border fence in Arizona and storm troopers are demanding to see people's papers.
The easy explanation would be to point out that in Nazi Germany those things were done to keep people in -- in Arizona they are being done to keep people out. That's a significant difference right there, but also an over-simplification itself.
It is commonly agreed that The United States is a nation of immigrants, legal immigrants. For over two hundred years in all parts of the world -- people have left their homes, their extended families, their possessions and moved to the New World of the United States. Those huddled-masses built this nation. An immigrant today doesn't just join us, but in a real sense joins those earlier immigrants, too.
It should be self-evident that the old legal-way worked well; we're all here, aren't we? We all have grand-parents or great grand-parents many times removed who came here from somewhere. They all were escaping a tyrant, a famine, religious oppression, or a backward culture that would abandon them to an eternity of peasantry. All were looking for a new start and a chance at Life. Very few of the world's wealthy left their estates or their villas to move here. Even the Marquis de Lafayette, after serving with George Washington and helping win our independence, moved back to France -- I'll never figure why. So don't fall for a lecture about "America hates poor people". Poor people by the million came to the United States and made it what it is.
The protest focused on Arizona is really a part of the economic resentment directed at the American people as a whole. It is self-serving and ultimately will prove self-defeating. There is no reason now to discard our measured means of selecting, admitting and absorbing new citizens in favor of a lax open border policy that disadvantages the American people.
The recent Arizona law was forced on the Governor, the Legislature and the People of that State by the inaction and fecklessness of the Federal Government. We've all heard the stories. How much murder and kidnapping does the Administration expect the people of Arizona to put up with? Just a little bit more, and then we'll do something? The fact is, the American public is being ignored by those who would benefit from either cheap labor or cheap votes. As Americans we have a right to expect our government to fulfill its commitment to "provide for the common defense" and to "insure domestic tranquility".
I just heard a radio sound bite of some anti-anti-illegal immigration protester claiming that America is like Nazi Germany: We are putting up a border fence in Arizona and storm troopers are demanding to see people's papers.
The easy explanation would be to point out that in Nazi Germany those things were done to keep people in -- in Arizona they are being done to keep people out. That's a significant difference right there, but also an over-simplification itself.
It is commonly agreed that The United States is a nation of immigrants, legal immigrants. For over two hundred years in all parts of the world -- people have left their homes, their extended families, their possessions and moved to the New World of the United States. Those huddled-masses built this nation. An immigrant today doesn't just join us, but in a real sense joins those earlier immigrants, too.
It should be self-evident that the old legal-way worked well; we're all here, aren't we? We all have grand-parents or great grand-parents many times removed who came here from somewhere. They all were escaping a tyrant, a famine, religious oppression, or a backward culture that would abandon them to an eternity of peasantry. All were looking for a new start and a chance at Life. Very few of the world's wealthy left their estates or their villas to move here. Even the Marquis de Lafayette, after serving with George Washington and helping win our independence, moved back to France -- I'll never figure why. So don't fall for a lecture about "America hates poor people". Poor people by the million came to the United States and made it what it is.
The protest focused on Arizona is really a part of the economic resentment directed at the American people as a whole. It is self-serving and ultimately will prove self-defeating. There is no reason now to discard our measured means of selecting, admitting and absorbing new citizens in favor of a lax open border policy that disadvantages the American people.
The recent Arizona law was forced on the Governor, the Legislature and the People of that State by the inaction and fecklessness of the Federal Government. We've all heard the stories. How much murder and kidnapping does the Administration expect the people of Arizona to put up with? Just a little bit more, and then we'll do something? The fact is, the American public is being ignored by those who would benefit from either cheap labor or cheap votes. As Americans we have a right to expect our government to fulfill its commitment to "provide for the common defense" and to "insure domestic tranquility".
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