So that we shouldn't forget

I'm saving this, because it has now returned to the news.  I hope other parties see fit to remind the voters of it during the campaign.

Speaking of which, the campaign ought to be a systematic analysis of those policies and legislative initiatives proposed or enacted--not to mention the "executive orders."  Just saying--there is no lack of material here, a great deal of which simply is odious to most voters.  Let's remind them, politely but firmly.  We've got months to work on this and get it right.

No excuses for failure!

Beautiful!

Save Hugh's comments for the campaign.  It contains a rubric for scoring the debates the right and effective way.

Stresses

When the history of these times is written, we may become aware of how close our republic has come to tyranny--the usurpation of private rights and dignities in favor of state manipulation.  The obsessive adherence of the current majority--may their hegemony be brief!--to the tools of bureaucracy, propaganda and economic disruption creates a pseudo-justification for an ultimately thuggish totalitarianism that cannot be sated.  I'm sure there are some in places of influence who work as the engineers of this process in the name of progressive, scientific humanitarianism.  What we see is the work of their amateurish, clumsy, uncentered, uncritical and often unwitting minions.  And seeing that is a good thing, for this insidious will to power must betray itself by its own contradictions.

Rubio-ism

Courtesy, NR online:



His thank-you message:

A picture emerges, but...

... it may not be the one the administration wants to hear.

Bernanke:  "But given the significant costs and risks associated with a rapidly rising federal debt, our nation should soon put in place a credible plan for reducing deficits to sustainable levels over time," using cuts and tax simplification.  The Fed chief said the economy is stronger when taxes aren't too high and are collected in an efficient, equitable and transparent way.  "At present, a broad consensus exists that the U.S. tax code does not satisfy these criteria and is in need of reform."

Jeepers!

UPDATE 4/28:  Another version of the story:  "Bernanke said the U.S. economy could not grow its way out of the problem."

Democracy and learning

Submitted without further comment, from the Preface to "The Great Conversation"--

We believe that the reduction of the citizen to an object of
propaganda, private and public, is one of the greatest dangers
to democracy. A prevalent notion is that the great mass of
the people cannot understand and cannot form an indepen-
dent judgment upon any matter; they cannot be educated, in
the sense of developing their intellectual powers, but they
can be bamboozled. The reiteration of slogans, the distortion
of the news, the great storm of propaganda that beats upon
the citizen twenty-four hours a day all his life long mean
either that democracy must fall a prey to the loudest and
most persistent propagandists or that the people must save
themselves by strengthening their minds so that they can ap-
praise the issues for themselves.

A unifying program for Republicans, and citizens of good will.

Dick Morris has proposed a pretty detailed set of priorities that if followed could provide a unifying focus for the Obamacare resistance.  It's worth noting in full:

1. Restore the Medicare cuts mandated in this bill. Block the reduction of physicians' fees by 21 percent scheduled to take effect this fall. Override the cuts in Medicare that require annual approval by Congress. Challenge the Democrats over each and every cut. Try to peel away enough votes to stop the cuts from driving doctors and hospitals to adopt the course already taken by the Mayo Clinic in refusing to take Medicare patients.

2. Defeat the Democrats in the 2010 election! Start with the traitors who voted no in November and then switched to a shameful yes when it counted in March: Baird (Washington), Kosmas, and Boyd (Florida). Then go on to win the open seats in the House and Senate. And then fight to replace as many Democrats as possible. Remember:   Any Democrat who voted no would have voted yes if they had needed his or her vote. The only way to repeal Obamacare is to vote Republican.

3. Defund:  once we get the majority in both chambers, defund appropriations for the Obamacare program. The bill Congress passed and the president signed is simply an authorization measure. Congress must appropriate funds for it each year. Through zero funding these changes, we can cripple them before they take full effect.

4. Repeal, once we defeat Barack Obama, this disastrous plan before it can ruin our healthcare system. Then, we must replace it with a Republican alternative which relies on the marketplace, tax incentives, and individual responsibility to provide healthcare to all Americans

New vocabulary word

I'd say the health care debate has given us a new word for our daily vocabulary--"stupack."  It may be used in contexts such as

"I got stupacked--I was expecting scallops in white wine, but they served fish sticks."

"The crowd was angry with the show's producer who promised The Rolling Stones, but could only deliver the Herman's Hermits tribute band.  Accusations of stupacking abounded."

"My bout with intestinal flu threatened to stupack our planned cruise; fortunately, I recovered in time."

A blend of dashed expectations and unanticipated venality....if that makes sense.

From a very clear-eyed observer...

...named Jacques Maritain (d. 1973), come these two comments: 

"I don't see America as a mainland, but as a sea, a big ocean. Sometimes a storm arises, a formidable current develops, and it seems it will engulf everything. Wait a moment, another current will appear and bring the first one to naught."

"The great and admirable strength of America consists in this, that America is truly the American people."

Maritain, a Frenchman, wrote a short testimonial to this country as he found it in the 1940's, called Reflections on America.  To some in the current moment, these words are a warning; to others, they are strength and consolation.  Be patient.  "Stay thirsty, my friends."

Houston, we have a problem....

Of course, the disinformation officers state solemnly that the electorate who voted in the primary could not possibly know what they were doing. Certainly this is the line of thought offered by those who favor the dictatorship over--er, of--the proletariat. Who among the enlightened would NOT see the wisdom and benevolence of Maximum Headroom--er, Leader?

But, what if they knew what they were doing???

UPDATE:

Now, here's more--good research and some comment.

A foolish consistency . . .

. . . is not necessarily the only sign of insanity. What about a foolish inconsistency, such as the President's conversion to viewing nuclear power as clean energy? Is this just blatant political opportunism, given his campaign comments about the danger of nuclear waste and the uncertainty about storing such material when it expires?

Lately, he's made such flip-flops on a number of issues, with stunning disingenuousness. Does no one in his circle recognize that this isn't a good sign. A general sign of sanity is not necessarily lockstep consistency, but simply lacking recognition that a thing and its opposite cannot be casually swapped like the blue tie or the striped tie is surely not healthy, either. Swapping ties is not a statement of political and intellectual character; reversing positions on issues that matter is such a statement. Either this gentleman and his clique are significantly lacking in principles, or they are suffering from some kind of delusion that reality is simply what is subject to the convenience of their definitions.

It's a little frightening, considering the power they wield.

"Possible upward price pressures in the pipeline"

Now there are hints that the (inevitable) inflation which must result from the vast increase in government spending may be in evidence. We should hope this is not the case, for two reasons: One, it's just more hardship and pressure on the economy which is struggling to breathe on its own. Two, high inflation will provide another opportunity for the statists to interfere again in the marketplace by imposing controls. Here's another version of the same facts. You'd think that someone may have planned this....

Must-read: on the "catechism" of the leftist claque

Mr. Lowry's current piece on the seemingly intractable ideology of the true supporters of the President is right on target. Unlike them, he has a good ear for what others are saying. The "religion" of what I called "warmed-over Marxism" during the the campaign is beginning to be seen for what it is by pickup-truck driving average American voters. The President can own up to this, or he can continue to believe and recite the mantras (to mix the religious metaphors) that he artfully wove into his very deceptive campaign for office. I'm convinced "the programme" was there to be seen, but the electorate was encouraged by his demeanor and double-meanings, and was hungry for a cool-down of the frenetic political situation (abetted by both parties) that dogged the second GWB administration.

Never overlook ideology.

On to Haiti...

Amid reports today of US troops now offshore to begin a mission in Haiti--and it is right that they do so--another step in shaping the Obama legacy is taken. Together with the now-renewed commitment in Afghanistan, this president's most lasting bequests to the nation may well be these potentially long-term commitments of American soldiers. They are two long-failed states whose stability will for a generation only be guaranteed by outsiders. I hope the folks in D.C. understand that.

What's really scary?

The radio news said this morning that the President feels that opponents of the health plan are using scare tactics to persuade people that this is not good legislation. If the bill is scary in itself, then the opponents are merely discussing facts. If the facts are scary, then the bill should not be considered for passage by the Congress. I hear facts in the arguments of the opponents. I hear a lot of avoidance and double-talk, and more than enough scare tactic, from the President.

On the government health care debate--

I have not heard good answers to two issues:

[1] No one has given a definitive answer to the question of what would happen to a patient like one of my family members. He's 85 and in otherwise very robust health, but some weeks ago was diagnosed with an early stage lymphoma in the neighborhood of his sciatic nerve. Now his physician and the cancer specialist both agree and insist that, treated assertively, this is a very remediable condition, and he should have a normal quality of life once the tumor is reduced and eliminated. They've started some chemo treatments, and he has already responded very well. The question is whether, under the government plan, elderly persons like this will receive treatment at all. I have heard this asked a couple of times in interviews of administration officials and their fellow-travelers, and the answers are either to the effect that the respondent does not know this provision of the plan or that they can't talk about specific cases. That bothers me. What if I'm in that position one day?

[2] There is also a lot of temporizing and avoidance of the pro-life question. I don't want my tax money used to extinguish the very human lives of the unborn.

Until I have satisfactory answers to the above, I'm against that legislation from beginning to end. We can't put these issues in the hands of the eugenicists.

Janus? Is that you?

President Barack Obama signed a law that explicitly bans federal funding of any “research in which a human embryo or embryos are destroyed, discarded, or knowingly subjected to risk of injury or death” only two days after he lifted President Bush’s executive order banning federal funding of stem cell research that requires the killing of new human embryos.

Goodness--words mean nothing with him. To adapt an O'Reilly-ism: is he the bloviator-in-chief?

My, what thin skins!

This White House crew, including their boss, have the thinnest skins in memory, and lack the shame to hide that fact in public. Like the old coach said to his excessively-celebrating athlete following a score: "Act like you've been there before."

See here: Gibbs takes gloves off to challenge reporters, hosts who cross Obama.

And of course, the ever-even-handed Mrs. Pelosi just loves freedom of political speech, as well: Speaker Pelosi Backs Senate Amendment to Regulate Talk Radio.

Miscellaneous

**The new Time Magazine (3/2/09) has "Best Actress" Kate Winslet on the cover. Shall we speculate a little? Why the putative Excellent Actress and not also the Actor? I'm sure they have their editorial preferences. Here's one theory: The reason there isn't an Actor is that they'd have to put You-Know-Who on the cover, again. Is it possible they couldn't bring themselves to do it?

**Stupid question of the week: Will the Illinois senatorial/office-peddling scandals ever end?

Most humbly, a prediction

First, check out today's headlines from CNS news--

Obama’s Stimulus Will Cause 'Lower Wages' for American Workers, Says Congressional Budget Office

Only 23 Percent of Stimulus Will be Spent This Fiscal Year, Congressional Budget Office Finds

Now, to me this bailout doesn't sound like very sound policy for relief that will be noticeable any time soon. It seems that the more effective help will more likely come from (a) last year's bailout distribution for financial institutions and (b) separate bills now being targeted at financers and troubled home owners. So, what, aside from the tax cuts, is the stimulus package for?

My guess: the ambiguity and corruption in that bill signed Tuesday during Mr. Obama's junket to Denver will cause much of the funding to be tied up in litigation and subject to criminal probes for a decade. (Hopefully) some of the folks who stand to gain the most and who voted for it will lose their offices as a result.

Here's a link to the Congressional Budget Office report: CBO analysis.