Lucid Links (070809, Morning)
Noteworthy Net-Worthies:
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Holman Jenkins, in a Wall Street Journal column about the Obama administration’s opposition to U.S. airlines’ attempts to form alliances with international carriers, makes a sad and important observation –
What we’re seeing here and elsewhere from the new administration is not some rebirth of thoughtful liberalism, but a spastic descent into machine liberalism — government for the benefit of government officials and their hangers-on. Mr. Obama, however, may not be so pleased with the result if it means he must soon add the airlines to the collection of failed industries being run out of the White House.
Actually, I don’t think the President ‘Prompter would mind turning the industry into Air Obama, complete with a new set of know-nothing apparatchiks like the car czars, but travelers would.
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You don’t say? Via AP –
An attempt by Hamas police to detain a young woman walking with a man along the Gaza beach has raised alarms that the Islamic militant group is seeking to match its political control of the coastal territory with a strict enforcement of Islamic law….
Imagine that.
What a great place to waste $900 million (HT Mere Rhetoric via LGF).
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Which reminds me — Isn’t it amazing how nearly invisible Hillary Clinton is? Hard-lefty Bonnie Erbe has noticed. We know much more about what Slow Joe Loose Cannon Biden thinks about Israel and Iran than what Hillary has to say.
Especially when relative visibility is taken into account, this administration seems to be more of a boys’ club than Bush 43′s ever was. I count eight women who put in 37 years of service in executive positions during the Bush administration (I added 4 extra for Condi Rice for her time at NSA) at this Wiki link.
Though of course it’s early, Obama has five. But one very conflicted female health care czar for all practical purposes cancels out HHS’s Kathleen Sebelius, and a socialist, government file-trashing female environmental czar effectively cancels out the EPA’s Lisa (who?) Jackson. That’s because the czars are non-executive advisers who effectively strip the cabinet members they usurp of much of their authority while pushing ultimate decisions to power-consolidating, chief executive, “I call female reporters ‘sweetie’” Obama).
Janet “Pro-lifers Are Terrorists” Napolitano is the most visible woman in the administration. No one has the profile Condi Rice had.
Among non-executives, Christina Romer’s presence on the Council of Economic Advisers mocks her tax-cut-effectiveness findings when she was in the private sector.
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David “Cracked” Krikorian is on the warpath again. That would be David Krikorian, Democrat.
As I noted in October, after Krikorian questioned the seriousness of Congresswoman Jean Schmidt’s injuries when she was hit by a car while jogging (she suffered “two broken ribs and two fractured vertebrae”) — “I’ve known about Krikorian’s unhinged nature for some time. …. but I would need permission to reveal (what I know). For now, I’m not inclined to ask for it.”
The summer or fall of 2010 might be a good time to revisit that inclination.
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John Fund, at today’s WSJ – “In helping to convince Sarah Palin that her road forward in national politics would demand even more sacrifices and pain than exacted from most politicians, the media did nothing to encourage women or people of modest means to participate in politics.”
That’s the point, John.
Successful people of relatively modest means, especially if married with children, tend to be conservative and very sensible. The Beltway elite, and especially its media branch, would prefer that these people stay at home, pay their outsized taxes, and mind their own business, while letting their “betters” run things.
How Keynesian, savings are bad…
Consumers Face a Long, Hard Workout
http://www.news-to-use.com/2009/07/consumers-face-long-hard-workout.html
In May, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco modeled a deleveraging of U.S. households, with the ratio falling back to 100% over a decade. The resulting drag was 0.75 percentage point off consumption growth every year. (…)
Restrained incomes and higher savings promise a grinding recovery with the threat of deflation and a lackluster outlook for the country’s banks and cyclical industries.
I am mystified at how they can claim savings puts a damper on economic growth when it is the banks and brokers who utilize individual savings to create investment capital which is the seed money for growth. Without savings, the banks can’t lend money for a car loan or mortgage. But then these are the same twits who believe government is the driver of the economy. Just because government can impede economic growth it doesn’t necessarily follow that government is a driver of growth. It’s like saying just as a thief makes you poorer, the thief can make you richer, no a thief’s only contribution is to steal from others to enrich themselves (and their friends if they need a safe haven).
Comment by dscott — July 8, 2009 @ 10:04 am
I love how liberals change their tune based on political expediency. First they trashed Palin for wanting to be governor because this supposedly meant she was being selfish and putting her family second. (Which is itself was laughable, since liberals contempt for family is well known.) Now that she has resigned to protect her family, they now claim she is being selfish and abandoning the people of Alaska! Amazing.
Notice how there was no trashing of Obama for abandoning the Illinois people to pursue his own selfish ambitions to become President of the US. A post, by the way, he has run in the most self-serving way imaginable.
Not to mention how they claim Palin is “inexperienced” when Obama is the most inexperienced man to ever hold the office of the Presidency. But here I digress…
Comment by zf — July 8, 2009 @ 11:19 am