JIMMY OBAMA
His most ardent supporters debate whether Mr. Obama is more like Abraham Lincoln or like Franklin Delano Roosevelt. But so far, the president he most closely resembles is Jimmy Carter. Call him Jimmy Obama. In 1976, Mr. Carter was a fresh new face with a thin political resume who blew past better known Democrats in the primaries running as an "outsider" and a "reformer." Jimmy Carter, like Barack Hussein Obama, took office during tough economic times. Mr. Carter coined the term "misery index" (the rates of inflation and unemployment added together). Mr. Carter proceeded to make a bad situation worse. The misery index stood at 13.57 in the summer of 1976 when he was clubbing President Ford with it. Four years later, it had risen to 21.98. Now Jimmy Obama seems poised to follow in his footsetps.
HALF-FULL REPORT 02/20/09
Ensconced in a booth in the HFR Saloon, we have to be extra careful today. For no matter how many of Durk Pearson's Party Pills we take to nutritionally protect us from booze, if we were to drink to all the marvelous events of this week, we would all get very seriously sloshed. So, bartender, just set down a bottle of 12 year-old Famous Grouse and we'll each have a wee dram in praise of... Let's see, first would have to be celebrating the ongoing travails of Senator Tombstone Burris. He has become such an embarrassing joke to the Dems that not only has the Chicago Tribune and Illinois Governor Patrick Quinn called for him to resign, the black pastors of Chicago have as well... ...What was it that W. C. Fields said about water? That it was the stuff that rusts pipes, that you can't trust it because even a straight stick turns crooked in it, that fish do unmentionable things in it. In light of another of his famous quips, that "Once in the wilds of remotest China, I lost my corkscrew, and was forced to live on food and water for days..." he might get a chuckle out of this headline of February 16: "Parched China to Slash Water Consumption by 60 Percent" ...Amidst all the outrage over our new terrorist-pardoning Attorney General, Eric Holder, accusing America of being "a nation of cowards," shouldn't we notice the irony that Holder is right, in precisely the opposite way he intends? America is a nation of cowards for electing Obama. The only reason he was elected is because he is black.
THE SICK MAN OF EUROPE
The European Union faces its first existential crisis. The EU worked well in the good times, when dissenting voices could be bought off, but worsening hard times threaten to knock it apart. Half of Europe is broke (but still putting on the dog), while the other half tries to shun its spendthrift neighbors. Not long ago, the Europeans smugly lectured the US on our financial incompetence. Now it looks like their mistakes were worse. Greed is universal. But it's especially dangerous when masked by self-righteousness. European financial managers and investors were at least as greedy as our worst Wall Street wizards. They just fell for different -- and even bigger, even worse -- scams.
WHAT WE HAVE GOT AND THEY HAVE NOT
One of the more arresting observations of the way we view history, past and current, was that of 18th century British writer (and son of England's first Prime Minister Robert Walpole, 1676-1745), Horace Walpole (1717-1797): "This world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those that feel." This is because those for whom rationality runs their brains rather than their emotions are more in charge of their lives and destinies. They can thus look upon the Obozos of history as droll. Those who only have their feelings to keep them afloat are mere flotsam in the river of events. As such, they can't help but see themselves as helpless victims in a tragedy beyond their control. There is another difference between those who think and those who feel: they react very differently in a crisis, with one consequence being the former survive more than the latter. Especially if the former are better armed.
DEPRESSION AND WAR
The connection between depression and war is greater than most people realize. Hard economic times tend to radicalize people, and to turn them towards violence. Hitler never would have ruled Germany, nor Mussolini Italy, if it hadn't been for the Great Depression. Conservative Republicans are fond of saying that it wasn't Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal that ended the Great Depression: it was World War II. Conservative Republicans are fond of saying this because it is indisputably true. But conservative Republicans rarely reflect on why it was that World War II ended the Great Depression. One who has is economist Bruce Bartlett, a Treasury department official in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and the first President Bush.
A PYRRHIC STIMULUS
At the Battle of Asculum in 279 BC, the Greek king Pyrrhus defeated a Roman legion, but at frightful cost to his own troops. When sycophantic courtiers congratulated him on his "great victory," Pyrrhus responded: "one more such victory, and we shall be undone." President Obama plans to celebrate his Asculum -- passage of the (at least) $787 billion "stimulus" bill -- with a signing ceremony in Denver tomorrow (2/17). Sycophantic courtiers in the news media hailed this as a great victory for the president, but it comes at the cost of the illusion that Mr. Obama represents a change from the corrupt old ways of Washington. As a candidate, Mr. Obama pledged a bipartisan approach to government. As a president, he is fond of only the appearance of bipartisanship. He treats Republicans like a young man who expects a girl to put out if he buys her a hamburger and a beer.
HALF-FULL REPORT 02/13/09
With every passing day now, we're subjected to another episode in an amateurishly bad TV sitcom starring Obozo the Clown President. Try changing the channel and the sitcom morphs into that ghastly 1988 horror flick Killer Klowns From Outer Space. It's enough to give you coulrophobia. For it really does seem that space aliens looking and behaving like clowns have seized Washington and are engaged in destroying our country. While this is not literally true, what would be the difference if it were? *** Well, one difference would be a plain vanilla sex scandal submarining Obozo's Plan for a Fascist America - or at least the health plan part of it... *** And as long as we're in to juicy Washington gossip, here's the juiciest - or what will become so.
THE SOLUTION OF CHINA
Zihuatenejo, Mexico. My wife and I have managed a quickie escape from Zeroland to stay at a friend's home here. If this isn't paradise, it will certainly do until paradise comes along. My rationale for being here (as if I really needed one) is that my buddy who lives here has been a top advisor to more Global Fortune 100 companies for more years than perhaps anyone else on earth. Who better to talk to regarding the meltdown of the global economy? Name any major insider or player in global finance or global business, and the odds are high that my friend has known them well for a decade or two. He's been calling them up, asking them the same question I had for him: What the hell is going on? Their answer, which is the same as his answer? "Damned if I know." He tells me: "Jack, I know the heaviest hitters out there. And I'm hard put to think of any who weren't blind-sided by this. You could see damage coming, a recession, okay. But a multi-multi trillion dollar total global wipeout? No one I know saw it, nor can explain it, nor knows what's coming next. We're all flying blind, and going broke doing so." Naturally, I needed another Margarita after that. Then we started to think about real solutions.
THE WAGES OF WAGE CONTROLS IS SOCIALIST DEATH
Do you agree with President Obama, who has just limited the pay for executives in some, but not all, of the companies receiving government bailout money to $500,000 a year? One could argue that $500,000 is too much, given that the president only makes $400,000 a year in a job with more responsibility and a larger budget than any other job in the world. Since there were plenty of would-be takers for that job, and some were arguably even qualified, why should we pay anyone more? Many people who rely on the taxpayers, both in the United States and elsewhere, make far more than the president of the United States. It turns out that the highest pad pubic employees in America are football coaches at taxpayer-funded public universities. Should their salaries be capped just like Wall Street execs?
THE PORKALOOZA AND A ONE-TERM PRESIDENCY
Barack Hussein Obama is making an unforced error which will define his presidency, and could shorten it. It's puzzling why. It's very much in the president's interest for Congress to pass an economic stimulus package that will work, because if the economy sinks further, it eventually will reflect upon him. And it is very much in the president's interest to have a package that wins support of a quarter to a third of the Republicans in Congress, both because the public loves bipartisanship, and - more importantly - to spread the blame if the stimulus doesn't work. But the president has embraced a porkalooza that does neither, and he's marketing it with harsh, partisan rhetoric that undermines the image he cultivated during the campaign. Failure to pass the measure as is would be a "catastrophe," he says. It's critics are unpatriotic, he implies. The shrillness of his rhetoric suggests Mr. Obama fears he may lose. But the great danger to him is that he may win.