NYT editor Gail Collin’s has a puff piece evaluation of the president’s first seven months:
Obama is hitting another milestone this week. When Congress goes into recess it’ll be a rough half-year marker for his presidency. And things have been looking pretty good. American influence is rising abroad, and at home nobody in the White House appears to be plotting to undermine our civil rights on a daily basis.
The economy’s looking kind of stimulated. These things take time, but the “cash for clunkers” part of the plan seems to be working like a charm. Believe it or not, it turns out that Americans will buy a lot more cars if you pay them a bunch of money to do it.
Let us put aside the opportunity cost presented by this market distortion – and the additional burden of debt clunker traders have now taken on since $4500 buys few new cars in America – and focus on that first paragraph, especially the bit about civil rights (the issue of America’s “rising influence abroad” deserves its own post).
President Bush’s critics on his civil rights positions were legion, and their arguments broad. He started a military tribunal system to try detainees at Guantanamo and hold indefinitely without trial detainees against whom no legal case could be made, enraging civil rights advocates. President Obama continued both elements of the program. He did vow to close down Guantanamo, but has not derived a politically acceptable way of doing so and as a senator failed to back two congressional bills that would have closed the detention center down.
Civil rights advocates protested Bush’s position that Afghanistan detainees imprisoned there had no constitutional rights that US courts were obliged to recognize. Obama agrees.
Bush used signing statements to “thwart the will of Congress.” So does Obama.
Civil rights advocates nattered themselves to death over the Patriot Act, passed by Congress after 9/11. President Obama’s attorney general wants to extend controversial elements of the act, including warrantless wiretaps.
Obama famously declared that, unlike Bush, government agents will no longer use coercive interrogation techniques that some have called tantamount to torture. And left room in his statement for precisely that result.
George Bush’s use of armed drones to strike at terror targets in Pakistan was “creating enemies.” President Obama’s national security team has intensified the pace of the strikes.
Civil rights advocates opposed Bush’s stand on same sex marriage. Obama tacitly endorses that position, or at least he has done nothing explicit to reverse it.
George Bush advocated for immunity to telecoms that provided material support in terror investigations, including domestic searches. Senator Obama endorsed a bill granting them immunity from lawsuits.
President Bush claimed sweeping power to quash “extraordinary rendition” investigations on the grounds of national security. President Obama’s lawyers use the same arguments.
And up until this point I generally agree with the pragmatic evolution of the president’s view from those he ostensibly held as a candidate, at least those having to do with national security. But President Obama has done something that President Bush never dreamt of: He essentially asked people to rat on their neighbors expressing dissent against his policies:
There is a lot of disinformation about health insurance reform out there, spanning from control of personal finances to end of life care. These rumors often travel just below the surface via chain emails or through casual conversation. Since we can’t keep track of all of them here at the White House, we’re asking for your help. If you get an email or see something on the web about health insurance reform that seems fishy, send it to flag@whitehouse.gov.
That link is from the actual US White House, by the way. To make things even more Orwellian, the data derived from the president’s novel take on community policing apparently need not be divulged publicly under a FOIA treatment, and must be maintained under the Presidential Records Act, potentially leading to a permanent, secret “enemies list.”
Shades of Nixon.
Ms. Collins implicit and comfortably unchallenged assumption that she can now sleep safely without worrying about daily challenges to her civil rights must be based on something other than the president’s policies.
Is it hope? Because it certainly doesn’t appear to be change.
The SOB said what people wanted to hear so that he could get elected. Now that he has the job those promises are not worth a pitcher of warm spit. It’s not like he has to worry about getting fired.
Jim Collins/
Why be so dainty? Let’s set the historical record straight. The always colorful V.P. James Nance Garner actually used the more descriptively accurate (in terms of explaining the “warm” bit
) word “piss.” And more conceptually accurate too, I might add, insofar as describing the worth of Obama’s stipulations. It was only because the press didn’t think the “sensibilities” of the American public at the time were prepared for such public expressions that the quote was changed by the press on purpose–as opposed to accidental misquote.
(As an aside, I always wondered as a HS student when I first read that abridged statement in the history books why in the world old John Nance would chose that description, as it didn’t make sense to me–turns out my intuition all those years ago was right.)
Believe it or not, it turns out that Americans will buy a lot more cars if you pay them a bunch of money to do it.
I don’t get the snark here. Did anyone seriously doubt that people would eagerly take $4,500 of my money for a POS worth less than half of that? Did anyone seriously doubt that the very people that created this mess by buying homes they couldn’t afford would have any hesitation in buying a new car that they can’t afford?
If by ‘working like a charm’ Collins means it’s easy to give away other people’s money, believe it or not, I am not in the least bit surprised it’s working. It’s paying for it that’s gonna be a bitch.
A little supporting information I bumped across….something about “the will of the people.”
xformed/
Thanks for the link. That was a quick bookmark for sure…Wonder how secure that flag-at-whitehouse.gov site is? I know some people who know some people–I’m making inquiries. FOIA may be nothing we need to bother about with any luck..
Found this this morning: It may be that any traffic via that site may be able to be hiddedn from any view under the Presidential Secrecy Act…you know, the one Obama wanted to change, so he could have his people decide what of the Bush Administration could be shoved out into the light of day….I bet he feels like he should reconsider it now…as it would protect him from being pilloried by those who got reported. Now, that being said, it appears there’s this loophole and you know they will not divulge the thraffic, they will hide it, because lawyers do that: Use the specific words of the law oh so very specifically, even when the application flies in the face of The Constitution, as in this case.
Quick PS-forgot–don’t click on that link for any reason–I forgot it activated when I typed.
Cash-for-clunkers is screwing the poor. Many people drive old clunkers because that’s all they can afford, or, want to afford. From what I see, what’s being turned in and crushed are in better shape than what lots of people are driving. So, where’s the “good” in drying up the supply of still perfectly good used cars that these people could or would afford to buy?
I know people, perfectly intelligent and civilized people, who have never owned a new car. They always buy the best in a used car, run it for years, then put the word out and buy another. They save a lot of money not only in the purchase, but in sales tax, registration and insurance.
What am I not understanding about this whole C-for-C thing? Or is this just more BHO, liberal Bull Scat. Please enlighten me.
You noticed that too? My current, only, vehicle is over 20 years old, and there’s now way I can afford a replacement at this point. And while it was a fuel-sipper for it’s day (and is, ironically, not eligible for C4C – unlike say, a new SUV, worth several times what C4C will pay for its destruction), you can bet that kneecapping an entire generation of vehicles is exactly what’s meant when people say the program “works.” In fact, I don’t think it’s passing the point of paranoia to imagine a day when cars that are as old as mine are prohibited from the Interstate Hwy System. At which point those who are currently poor are absolutely screwed, lacking easy transport should they want to pull up their tent pegs and decamp for better, more prosperous regions where jobs might not be so completely destroyed. No, it’s to be locked into their current districts for them, where they’re dependent on staying in the good graces of The Boys In Charge.
Virgil,
I wasn’t being prissy, I have had profanity blockers kick back the word piss before. I don’t know if Lex has a blocker or not.
Jim/
Oh, I wasn’t worried about that, was more tongue-in-cheek, what I breally was commenting on was that you could be forgiven if you were unaware of the original–you’d be amazed how much that fact
is not widely known. Hell, I think I was out of college before I really read the historical conformation of the original statement–the quote using the word “spit” is STILL the most widely used in general circulation–probably partly because of spam blockers you noted, come to think of it.
Jim/
Oh, I wasn’t worried about that, was more tongue-in-cheek, what I really was commenting on was that you could be forgiven if you were unaware of the original–you’d be amazed how much that fact is not widely known. Hell, I think I was out of college before I really read the historical conformation of the original statement–the quote using the word “spit” is STILL the most widely used in general circulation–probably partly because of spam blockers you noted, come to think of it.
CforC is a microcosm of what is wrong with Obama’s America. This program is paying for cars that would have been traded in any way. According to Edmunds.com, about 200K cars are traded in every quarter. This will bump that to between 222K and 286K — meaning we spend $1B for a max add’l 86K sales — so at a minimum, the incremental sales really cost the taxpayer almost $12K per car.
Most of these are “pull forwards” — just speeding up the date on cars that would be traded in later this year any way.
The experience with other programs like this isn’t good. The Germans started with $2B (in euros), stopped at $7B. Even with that, the auto industry was “waiting on the bonus like a drug addict waits for the next shot,” according to one German politician.
This is just you and me paying for the rebates that even the manufacturers decided were destroying their business. You can’t borrow your way to prosperity. But that concept is unfortunately outside the ken of our leaders, who have no experience other than handing out free ice cream.
Well, after debating the issue regarding that whole “flag@whitehouse.gov” snitch bit, I came up with a plan of my own.
I couldn’t sleep at all last night, so I spent several hours forwarding the contents of my junk mail folders to the email addy in question. After I had exhausted all of them, I then spent a couple hours signing that address up for all sorts of porn sites, alternative lifestyle sites, and every “work at home” scam site i could find. Turns out there’s quite a few, actually
Apparently others out there have taken up the same thought process. Like the leftists say, never pass up the opportunity a crisis presents……. heh.
Brilliant! Don’t forget fundraisers from the NRA, Project Liberty, etc.
AW1Tim/
I could kiss you!! (ALMOST) A GREAT ploy!! Kudos, Boffo, and every other congratulatory statement of approval in Webster’s! BWAHAHAHAhahahah!!!!!
Holy crap. I can’t quit laughing. I’d not have had the guts to do that… seriously, that’s funny.
What an absolutely GREAT idea. I must tell my friends and we can all do it. Bury them in Bull Scat!
I owe you beers should we ever meet.
Note that forwarding an e-mail with intact headers can allow the recipient to determine the authenticity of said message to some degree. However, there is nothing in the headers that can be used to authenticate the body of the message. In other words, if I forward an e-mail from Tim they can be reasonably certain the e-mail originated from Tim, but they have to trust that the body of the message is as I received it.
It thus becomes a simple matter to “revise and extend” that message you received from, say, your local congressmen or governor or community organizer and forward it to the White House.
“Revise and Extend?” Isn’t that what Congress does when they want to be able to alter the Congressional Record of what they said after-the-fact? Must be OK then, the Congress is doing it.
– Max
Yup… brilliant!
I heard one gal call in to a radio show today and suggest mailing fish recipes to the site. Seems appropriate to me!
And I thought I was the only one losing sleep the last couple of nights. Glad to know I’m not alone, Tim!
DUDE! You the MAN!
Tim … You brilliant brilliant person! It’s an honor to know you.
This latest ploy by the White House brings back vivid memories to this old person of the run-up to the Second World War, when Hitler’s master planners decided to draft all the Hitler Jugend youngsters into spying on and reporting on their parents and the parents’ friends. Supposedly, the Hitler Jugend was an analog of American and British Boy Scouts. Some Boy Scouts. They weren’t learning to tie knots.
Maybe that’s going to be the task of Obama’s “civilian militia.” Can’t see any other purpose in a civilian militia, when we have the National Guard in each state, and our various military forces stationed around the country. Can you?
Marianne
Marianne, you remind me of a story in the family. One cousin’s father-in-law was in the Hitler Jugend during World War 2. Worked his way across units in Berlin until he came to one fighting the Americans, whereupon his group managed to get themselves captured well behind the front lines after holing up in the basement of a demolished building. Seems fighting the Russians didn’t have much of a future in it.
Eventually he’s allowed to come to America as an orphan, his former home being well within the Russian area of influence. Joins the Army as a way to say thanks, finds himself in the Korean War.
He died several years ago, but the running story is whenever somebody at the VA hospital or the local VFW hall asked, “Do I know you?” the answer was always, “Depends upon which side of the lines you were on.”
He didn’t think much of the Hitler Jugend. When asked why he joined he opined that if your choices are no food and some food, it’s not such a difficult choice.
It unlikely to get that bad here. Hopefully.
– Max
“Civilian Militia” is an oxymoron. The National Guard is a Militia. What the term is saying is “Civilian Army.”
I don’t know if my earlier comment (which should have been No. 2) was killed by your spam filter or not. Just in case:
To Frau Blucher (Linda Douglas), I am the Thought Criminal you have been looking for.
Tim, what’s a porn site? I’m confused!! Just kidding. Look out Whitehouse, incomming spam.
Just ran across this:
http://americandigest.org/mt-archives/enemies_foreign_domestic/historys_ironies_white_ho.php#010222
Serendipity?
About 40 years ago I toured her “house”.
WRT, the “snitch on your friends” address, I think spaming the address isn’t quite cricket. I prefer being fairly reasonable and send then useful tidbits – like this:
Dear Sir/madam: I’m not sure if the gentleman speaking in this video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jifjRVLVjzA) knows that he isn’t being helpful by demonizing those who have alternate ideas. By his logic, Rep. Frank and Senator Dodd should step aside on all housing and banking issues.
Have a great day!
Sincerely,
XXXXXXX XXXXXX
Gee, no paranoia here. He couldn’t possibly be asking for the input just to learn what actual misinformation might be floating around out there? I mean, sure, paranoia is always an option but …
OTOH thanks for the list of ‘differences’ between Obama and Bush, I’ve been looking for such a thing to show some friends.
Gee, no paranoia here. He couldn’t possibly be asking for the input just to learn what actual misinformation might be floating around out there? I mean, sure, paranoia is always an option but …
OTOH thanks for the list of ‘differences’ between Obama and Bush, I’ve been looking for such a thing to show some friends.
Michelle
You might check this out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Protective_League
Cheers
We defeated the Soviets, meanwhile a Stasi culture engulfs Europe… (Quote by Jan Theuninck, august 2009)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26915283@N07/3896400202/