Things getting worse?

Bensblurb # 562 July 27, 2010

Things are getting worse; no, better...

Steve Forbes---Now, in the midst of another economic crisis...Washington is at it again, this time with a far more ideologically rigid President than FDR....Thus it will take several years for surviving health-care companies to become full-fledged vassals of the federal government, which will dictate what policies are offered and at what prices. The new financial “reform” bill is taking the same approach--its language is intentionally vague in order to give bureaucrats enormous discretionary powers...If the Administration has its way, Washington’s tentacles will extend over the entire economy. the President tipped his hand early on...when he implored young people to pursue careers in government instead of in the private sector. He made it clear that those who enter private companies are succumbing to greed and selfishness, while those who become bureaucrats--“public servants”--are somehow more noble and more concerned with the public good.

Frank Donatelli, in Politico--Obama says the economy is headed in the right direction; jobs are being created, not lost, and he is doing everything possible to revive the “worst economy since the Great Depression.” Most of the national press has been remarkably accepting of this narrative — even if the president has been vague, at best, about when we might finally see an uptick in economic growth and job creation. But in another economic time, President Ronald Reagan’s economic recovery program took 17 months to take hold. It took from the time Congress passed his tax cuts, in August 1981, until the recession he inherited finally ended in January 1983. Unemployment hit a high of 10.8 percent in December 1982. But then economic growth spiked, and the unemployment rate began a long, steady decline throughout the 1980s... Tax cuts were a part of Reagan’s effort to cut the size and scope of government to fight economic stagnation. “Government is not the solution,” Reagan said in his remarkably clear inaugural address. “It is the problem.” In addition to tax cuts, Reagan reduced domestic discretionary spending and streamlined regulations to make them less of a burden on businesses seeking to create jobs. He believed that government should give individuals and businesses the proper incentives to grow and expand and not inhibit the private sector with high taxes and cumbersome regulations. Reagan faced obstacles that Obama did not. The House he had to work with was always controlled by Democrats. More ominously, inflation was running at double-digit rates, and it took nearly a year for the Federal Reserve to squeeze those pressures out of the system. Regardless, in the end, Reagan’s program worked. The turnaround began 17 months later. Fast-forward to today. The Obama administration says that government-directed investment, via huge spending increases, can revive the economy. It’s now stimulus plus 17. Is there a turnaround in sight? Apparently not.

NOTE: The next report on monthly unemployment, for July, will come out Aug. 6.
Congressional careers hang in the balance, although it’s said that the report for June is typically more instrumental in setting the tone--now gloomy for Dems-- for the fall elections.

Meanwhile, for conservatives, a sunnier assessment:
“The Political Left is in a meltdown. There’s no way to sugarcoat the calamity. It is falling apart. It sees the tide has turned and a possible tsunami is building, ready to crest and explode in November, washing all their dreams away. How could this be happening to them? Could it be that trillion dollar disaster otherwise known as the ‘stimulus,’ that emergency measure needed to save the economy by creating millions of jobs except it’s accomplished absolutely nothing except putting our grandchildren yet another trillion dollars in debt? Or the auto company takeovers, something no one wanted and Congress never authorized as part of the TARP bailout fund? Or the appointment of one radical after another to nanny-state us all, including now the just recess-appointed Dr. Donald Berwick to oversee ObamaCare, a Marxist who proudly calls for the redistribution of wealth and who absolutely adores Britain’s onerous National Health Service, rationing and all? Or any one of a thousand other radical ventures proposed/discussed/enacted by this radical leftist regime?--Nah.” --Brent Bozell, in Newsbusters

Inside the Beltway, still no answer about why Shirley Sherrod wasn’t offered her old job back by USDA. Stay tuned.

--Ben Blankenship
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USDA with its pants down

Bensblurb # 561 July 22, 2010

Now she wants to speak to Obama!
Here's a question I have heard nobody ask: Why didn't USDA simply restore Mrs. Sherrod's old job rather than offer her another one? Had she been screwing up? Had she been preparing another lawsuit against USDA, after winning her original one that netted her $300 grand? Was USDA planning to abolish her job anyhow to save money? Rural development was never a priority there.
Sounds to me like USDA was just looking for a good reason to dump her and then leaped when the opportunity arose, via her taped NAACP speech. Further, after viewing a contentious interview she had this week on CNN with Roland What's-his-name, it looked to me like she had a short fuse and went off quickly against his arguments. Apparently she’s no sweetie pie. We’ll surely hear more.
　
　
...as Holder tries to keep Arizona from protecting its border...
“At the nexus of the Democrats’ two most urgent policy priorities — reducing CO2 emissions and immigration reform that includes amnesty for 12 million illegal immigrants — lies an uneasy reality: Enactment of the latter may prove to be the key obstacle to achieving the former.
The economic and national security implications of open borders have been examined in depth. Less study, however, has been devoted to the possible environmental impact of immigration.
People migrate to the United States to improve their standard of living. But the liberal wish of immigration amnesty may have deleterious effects on the environment, as millions of people from developing countries settle down in, or are encouraged to move to, the world’s largest energy-consuming country and quickly embrace all the CO2-causing ways of the world’s richest economy.
This liberal conundrum is illustrated by the events going on today in the Gulf of Mexico, since a demand for fuel sparked the recent chain of events.
According to liberal wisdom, population growth is the primary cause of heavier traffic, urban sprawl, further depletion of natural resources and increased CO2 emissions. And immigration is the principal cause of U.S. population growth today. More than 1 million people become permanent U.S. residents per year."--Gary Bauer

...In Federal Power Grab:
“I'm cautiously optimistic that the Arizona law will be upheld and I believe that it should be. It would be quite a federal power grab to bar states from protecting their residents from widespread violations of federal immigration law that the federal government is unwilling vigorously to enforce.”--Paul Mirengoff, in Power Line.

Obama names new head of health care, with no congressional review?
“It may be high time to hire someone who’s run something, turned a profit, maintained a payroll, balanced a budget, or hired and fired people. There is something terribly adolescent about Obama — an infatuation with himself and with pretty words, a lack of decisiveness, an inability to make tough choices, and an unwillingness to take responsibility for his own actions. By 2012, the country may be ready — desperate, even — for a grown-up executive.”--Jennifer Rubin, in Commentary
　
Finally...
William F. Buckley famously said: "I would rather be governed by the first 2000 people in the Manhattan phone book than the entire faculty of Harvard." After 18 months of the Obama administration, we have a demonstration of how right he was, noted a blogger recently..

--Ben Blankenship
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Eating one's words

Bensblurb # 560 July 15, 2010
ITEM: "Jul 14, 2010 ... A drought watch has been issued for Virginia as a long hot, dry spell has stunted crops, heightened the threat of wildfires and..."--Business Week

Distasteful: Eating one’s words

Pass the Tums, please. For years in this space, I have been totally chamber of commerce-y in bragging about Stafford’s mild climate. Well, it was, but now isn’t. A great number of plus-90 and 100-degree days, plus our famous humidity, have totally boiled my enthusiasm. Bad enough, it had already been damaged last winter by our huge snowstorms.

Nothing severe since 1996, I had crowed earlier about our string of mild winters.

Now our long hot summer drags on and August’s dog days haven’t even arrived yet. My lawn out front, formerly green, then brown, is now absent as drought again rains, er, reigns.

(A horticultural aside about area lawns...They always look tacky about this time of year, except for golf greens of course.)

And how about all that stuff I have written, disparaging my county’s feeble attempts at voluntary rationing of temporarily scarce water reserves? Surely it was all just brouhaha, considering our location physically, in that we enjoy running water (everlasting?) on three sides of our fortunate county.

And global warming? What a ripe target for ridicule. Except...Maybe those scientists believing we’re the cause of it all may be on to something after all. According to NOAA, the January through May period this year was globally the hottest on record, with the average temperature in May nearly one degree above the 20th century’s May average. We helped.
　
Regardless, I get consolation in reading that our hardy old earth has been both hotter and colder in our distant past. But then I look up at July’s merciless sun, and plea that it lose all its spots and thus give us relief from its withering glare. Similarly I wish that all the hot air arising from Washington, D.C. would hurry up and take the customary August vacation, via congressional recess.

I had planted a dozen new azaleas out front this spring, and with the onset of nice rains had confidently predicted their hardiness to one and all. At last furtive glance, they all looked stressed and some were on life support---presuming county watering restrictions aren’t imposed.

For newcomers still getting used to Stafford’s predilections, especially the drought edicts, be informed they can sprout at the drop of a hat, or rather the missing drop of a passing storm that had spent itself someplace else like Culpeper. Thus will our long hot summer persist.

I wish the county would hurry up and issue another water-restriction memo. That’s always worked in recent summers (like in 2007) to end our previous bad droughts.

To end on a cheerful note, I hope “long” won’t also be descriptive of our recession for much longer. Which reminds me: Before leaving the White House during the Great Depression, Herbert Hoover pushed through a big tax increase. Likewise, we’re similarly liable to remember Obama for also pushing through another whopper (by ending the Bush tax cuts next New Year’s Day) and getting a similar result, some fear, as Hoover’s: a prolonged financial agony.

Let’s pray otherwise. And also for a few good gully-washing drought breakers.

Ben Blankenship is an Aquia Harbour resident and career journalist. Reach him at Benblanken@aol.com

Blue Monday downer

Bensblurb #559 July 12, 2010

Hunker Down, it‘s Blue Monday:

Has Robert Gibbs planned his own departure from the White House? Apparently. This flat-tire White House press secretary said yesterday on Meet the Press: "There's no doubt there are enough seats in play in races[ for the House]," for Republicans to gain control.” he said, on Meet the Press-- See ya. Good riddance.

Lousy recession to linger

Michael Barone unloads, in Washington Examiner: Home mortgage interest rates are the lowest in history, but house sales are plunging. Banks can make money easily because of the Federal Reserve's low interest rates, but they're not making many loans. Major corporations are sitting on something like $2 trillion in cash, but they're not investing.
Unemployment is running at 10 percent, rounded off, for the 11th straight month, but few employers are hiring and a million people have stopped looking for work in the last year. Small-business hiring is at a nine-month low, and retail sales are tailing off.
Government policies designed to stimulate the economy seem to be having the opposite effect. Consumers aren't buying, businesses aren't hiring, and those fortunate enough to have some cash on hand don't seem to be investing... This hurts the economy, but it's a rational response to the Obama Democrats' public policies.

"Why aren't businesses hiring?" asks tax lawyer Hale "Bonddad" Stewart. "Uncertainty: There has been a tremendous amount of change over the last 12 months. Businesses are still trying to figure out what this means for their bottom line. Until there are firm answers, they will freeze hiring."
In other words, the Obama Democrats' vast expansion of the size and scope of government -- and the threat that they may pass even more such legislation in a lame duck session of Congress after the November election -- has chilled the animal spirits that John Maynard Keynes said were the driving force for economic growth.

Instead of stimulating the economy, the Obama Democrats' policies have shocked it into immobility....At least one [further shock] is definitely coming: The Bush tax cuts expire at the end of the year, which means that high earners can be sure they will very soon keep less of what they make.
Politicians up for re-election are taking notice. Congressional Democratic leaders can't round up the votes for another stimulus package and have not dared to ask their members to vote for a budget resolution.

Barone isn’t alone.

Check this AP story:
BOSTON — The heads of President Barack Obama's national debt commission painted a gloomy picture Sunday as the United States struggles to get its spending under control.
Republican Alan Simpson and Democrat Erskine Bowles told a meeting of the National Governors Association that everything needs to be considered — including curtailing popular tax breaks, such as the home mortgage deduction, and instituting a financial trigger mechanism for gaining Medicare coverage.
The nation's total federal debt next year is expected to exceed $14 trillion — about $47,000 for every U.S. resident.
"This debt is like a cancer," Bowles said..."It is truly going to destroy the country from within."

--As Ronald Reagan once said, "The fact is, we'll never build a lasting economic recovery by going deeper into debt at a faster rate than we ever have before. ..”

Free Press?

Journalists who come too close to oil spill clean-up efforts without permission could find themselves facing a $40,000 fine and even one to five years in prison under a new rule instituted by the Coast Guard late last week--Daniel Tencer at Raw StoryIt's a move that outraged observers have decried as an attack on First Amendment rights. And CNN's Anderson Cooper describes the new rules as making it "very easy to hide incompetence or failure."

---Ben Blankenship

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More rabbit ears, etc.

Bensblurb # 558 July 7, 2010
Rabbit ears?

That label “identifies a participant in a baseball game who hears things perhaps too well for his own good. A player who becomes nervous or chokes when opposing players or fans yell at or razz him is said to have "rabbit ears.”--Wikipedia

Speaking of labels, here’s more on our own Rabbit Ears in the White House....Maureen Dowd, the NYT columnist: “[Obama is]thin-skinned. And when you're thin-skinned, you like to control the image. And he doesn't often like the image that the media has of him." Poor baby, he forgets that the mainstream media until lately has fawned on him like he was Lollipop, my Yorkie.

More wetbacks regardless: “In the past two decades, the U.S. Border Patrol’s budget has seen a nine-fold increase, and the number of border patrol agents has grown by a factor of five. Yet, over that same period the number of illegal immigrants in the U.S. has tripled.--Wall Street Journal
　
The long dismal view. Politico‘s Frank Donatelli writes that President Barack Obama’s Democrats have set out to alter fundamentally the nature of the U.S. political system. The changes they’ve wrought will not be easily undone. Obama has sought to remake America into a social democracy — like Germany or France — with a larger public sector, expanded entitlements, stronger labor unions and a changed political structure. He’s doing quite well so far:
--Size of government. Are we really still a government of limited powers at the federal level? It’s hard to make that case.
--The feds are running auto companies. They fired the General Motors board of directors and forced Chrysler bondholders into a settlement far less attractive than that given the United Auto Workers, strong allies of Obama.
--The Bush administration devised the Troubled Asset Relief Program, but the Obama administration has extended it once already, and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has proposed keeping the $700 billion open as a line of credit to fund expanded government programs.
--Obama’s stimulus plan, combined with his amended 2009 budget and his 2010 and 2011 spending plans, have pushed annual deficits to more than $1 trillion per year.
--Entitlement expansion. Obamacare has passed and is lurking in our federal and states’ budget futures. When the program is fully operational in 2014, federal spending for health care is expected to rise sharply. Many businesses could drop their coverage and force workers into the public “exchanges” created by the legislation. Millions more could be eligible for federal subsidies.
All this adds up to millions more advocates for even more generous benefits and higher federal spending. Democratic politicians should be only too happy to oblige.


A novel rationale...for the McChrystal firing, by Paul R. Hollrah (with a hat tip to Bill Wright):
[The pundits and politicians] were all wrong [about Gen. McChrystal]… dead wrong...they all owe McChrystal and his senior aides an apology for assuming that they are lame-brained numbskulls. The facts of the McChrystal case are not in dispute. General McChrystal and his senior officers allowed a reporter for Rolling Stone Magazine, Michael Hastings , to have almost unprecedented access...In an interview with CNN, Hastings reported that he had a tape recorder in his hand most of the time and that McChrystal was "very aware" that his comments would find their way into print. He said, "McChrystal and his people set no ground rules for their conversations, although they did ask that some parts of their conversations were off the record."...The almost unanimous opinion of the talking heads was that the comments made by McChrystal and his staff were off the cuff and inadvertent. But to believe that is to totally ignore who these men are. General McChrystal and his top officers are...intelligent, thoughtful, highly educated, patriots… graduates of West Point and other fine universities… who are dedicated to duty, honor, and country. To think that such men would be so careless as to speak unflatteringly of Obama, Biden, and other top administration figures, in the presence of a reporter...defies logic… at the very least. To think that men who are trained to be careful and deliberate in everything they do, could do something so careless and so unguarded is simply beyond comprehension. I would argue that McChrystal and his aides knew exactly what they were doing. From the day that he became the handpicked "spear carrier" for Obama's unique brand of warfare… playing at being Commander in Chief while playing to his far left constituency… McChrystal's life had been one of constant frustration. After telling Obama exactly how many troops he needed to carry out his mission, Obama...decided to give him just half the troops he requested. McChrystal could not have been happy about that.The Obama team insisted on new Rules of Engagement designed to reduce collateral damage (civilian casualties). Obama's ROE required that U.S. troops must be able to see the enemy with weapon in hand before they were allowed to return fire...our soldiers and Marines were required to fight with one hand tied behind their backs. McChrystal could not have been happy about that.A strict new interrogation policy, dictated by Attorney General Eric Holder, required that prisoners must be delivered to an Interrogation Center within 24 hours of being captured or be released. A great deal of actionable intelligence was lost as a result and battle-hardened enemy fighters were returned to the field to kill Americans. McChrystal must have found that to be incomprehensible.But the greatest insult...may be a new battlefield medal designed by the Obama team. It is called the Courageous Restraint Medal and is awarded to soldiers and Marines who demonstrate uncommon restraint in combat by not firing their weapons even when they feel threatened by the enemy. Would we be surprised to learn that the preponderance of these medals were awarded posthumously? McChrystal must have found that to be an insanity.
I suggest that, having his best military judgments subjected to the White House political sieve for nearly a year and a half, McChrystal decided that he'd had enough...And...to make the most of a bad situation... They had to make the most of his retirement because it provided a one-time opportunity to show the American people, as well as our enemies and our allies, that the man who claims the title of Commander in Chief of the U.S. military does not command the respect of our men and women in uniform. To make the most of that opportunity they had to choose their messenger very carefully...

--Ben Blankenship

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Fireworks for the 4th

Bensblurb #557 July 3, 2010

Editorial fireworks for the 4th (local edition)

Sweet land of liberty? It certainly still is, on this year’s Independence Day, at least for me and mine.

My generous pension, paid-off home in a nice, secure Aquia Harbour neighborhood, and a devoted wife of 54 years combine to make Virginia living easy. Nice. If it weren’t for my nagging backaches...

They undoubtedly have caused my grouchiness so much of the time since the Democrats took over Washington--with a teensy few extra personal pounds possibly contributing. Granted, it’s good locally that our own county swept Republicans into office last fall, brightening Stafford’s economic future.

As columnist John Stossel commented recently, "America's current struggles notwithstanding, life here is pretty good. We have a standard of living that's the envy of most of the world....Why did America prosper when most of the people of the world are still poor?... Milton Friedman, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 1976, clearly warned the world about the unintended consequences of big government....'We've surrendered power to government; nobody has taken it from us. It's our doing...’--If we are free to make our own choices, we prosper."

But now it seems we aren’t, and we don‘t. And thus the problems today. Soaring deficits are going to unduly burden our heirs. Now I hear that Social Security’s payouts have begun to exceed its income from workers. It will only get worse, barring changes by Congress. Fat chance.

A bumper sticker on my car reads, “Fight socialism. Buy a Ford.” It’s about our only traditional car maker not being run by the feds. Their other takeovers continue unabated.

Item: Congress has let EPA decide how and when to regulate energy production, so it will cost more. Item: A new EPA rule requires that renovation of any building built before 1978 affecting six or more square feet of paint must be overseen by a government-certified renovator and conducted by a government-certified renovation firm. Certification requires completion of an EPA-approved training course and payment of a fee to the agency. Item: There’s that work-slowdown rule on the oil-spill cleanup, with OSHA limiting Gulf cleanup workers to laboring 20 minutes on the hour. Geez.
　
Such bureaucratic monkeyshines have led some folks to predict a lengthening of our jobless recession. “Double dipping” is the expression being bandied about.

I hope not, especially since that would most likely mean, for example, a longer stay for the virtual desert at our front door, formerly known as Aquia Towne Center. Its developer cleared out the formerly thriving businesses, including my favorite hangout, Gargoyles, and put up a big office building. Warm and cozy? Hardly.

To add insult to injury, a huge parking lot there is home only to weeds, having been fenced off. Of course, it could easily have been converted to allow commuter parking that is in such short supply in north Stafford. Is the developer listening? Hello.

But forget all that stuff for one lovely day. Wave the flag and salute as the parade passes by. We’ve been great for a long time, and we’ll darn sure overcome our difficulties again.

Ben Blankenship is an Aquia Harbour resident and career journalist. Reach him at Benblanken@aol.com