On the Economy

Victor Davis Hansen tries to understand what’s going on based on what we keep being told. Good luck with that, dude.

David Harsanyi is quickly becoming a favorite of mine:

Here’s an idea: If you stop nationalizing banks, there will be no need to engage in phony-baloney indignation over bonus payments anymore.

House of Eratosthenes makes some apt comparisons to the Reverend Wright silliness:

Either way, I notice Obama looks worst if you take what he says at face value — that He just found out about these bonuses and wasn’t aware of them when He was cheerleading these bailouts.
It’s the same situation we had last year with that bigoted pastor of His.

And the Anchoress has more links and a video that’s kind of fun.

Links

Veterans
First off, the plan for veterans to use private insurance for service related problems made the front page of the Washington Post today. Rahm Emmanual is meeting with some veterans groups and this thing is going to go away because there is NO WAY that it can go anyplace. If Obama, who has been idiotic enough to bring this up – twice – already, brings it up again, well then start watching those approval numbers drop. Even the Huffington Post knows this.

UPDATE: David K. Rehbein was apparently in that meeting with Obama the other day. He seems to think that Obama seriously intends to go through with this. Once again – thank God for our system of government, because there is no way in hell Congress will pass it.

Sadly – our forces get to continue their tours working for this guy. I suspect there will be fewer re-ups until he’s gone, gone, gone.
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Russia and our “image”
Scott looks at our lovely new situation with Russia. The one where they re-arm and we decommission.
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AIG Bailouts
On the AIG bailout outrage. You do have to laugh a bit. The bailout, the stimulus, the budget, the mortgage bailout….all of these numbers are soooooo immense people just go about their business and let the government handle things.

What’s a trillion dollars anyway? Oh, it’s a lot of money, but that’s what Obama says we need to fix this problem…..

But a million? Oh – people know what a million dollars is. We all want a million dollars and we all know how we’d spend it too. That’s why there has been such an outcry. All of a sudden a lot of money has come down to the ranks of understanding.

Imagine if there had been this wailing on about the actual money that’s been flying out of our pockets before this little bit hit the headlines!

Dinocrat shares how “Not” to fix the financial system.

Ed Morrissey sees the worst of both worlds and suggests a bit of thought go into the next bailout. Thought that may lead to bankruptcy.

The Washington Post suggests that there is a new way to do business and business needs to learn how it works.

Leadership

Was it only last week that Obama displayed his leadership skills by letting it be known he was “overwhelmed” with the job?

Yes, yes, it was.

And was it only last week that there was a hint of asking veterans to pay for their own medical care as it relates to service related injuries??

Yes, yes it was.

And was it only yesterday that Obama gave remarks to the Department of Veterans Affairs noting the commitment that we have to our service men and women with these exact words:

This department has more than a quarter of a million employees across America, and its services range from providing education and training benefits, health care and home loans, to tending those quiet places that remind us of the great debt we owe — and remind me of the heavy responsibility that I bear. It’s a commitment that lasts from the day our veterans retire that uniform to the day that they are put to rest — and that continues on for their families.

and noting the budget in regards to the VA with these words:

With this budget, we don’t just fully fund our VA health care program — we expand it to serve an additional 500,000 veterans by 2013; to provide better health care in more places; and to dramatically improve services related to mental health and injuries like Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury.

and noting our obligation to the men and women of our armed forces with these EXACT words:

Washington understood that caring for our veterans was more than just a way of thanking them for their service. He recognized the obligation is deeper than that — that when our fellow citizens commit themselves to shed blood for us, that binds our fates with theirs in a way that nothing else can. And in the end, caring for those who have given their fullest measure of devotion to us — and for their families — is a matter of honor — as a nation and as a people.

Yes, yes he did.

And yet, and yet……Obama is wanting soldiers to find their own coverage for their service related injuries, generating for the government $540 million, while at the same time, the SAME time yet more pork goes to that unapologetic liar, John Murtha.

$250 million right there.

It’s impossible, right? There is no way in hell this will get through Congress and yet…..thisainthell tells us:

Our local CHANNEL 9 News (WUSA) reports that Shinseki claims he’ll oppose the measure when the whole bill is presented next month.

Who on earth is going to present this bill?? And if you were working in the armed forces putting your life and your health on the line for this country why on earth would you choose to follow the asswipe who wants you to pay for your own damages that occur keeping said asswipe safely in power while in the line of duty??

There is no way this will pass, but neither should this even be PRESENTED!!!!

Adding to my high blood pressure this morning we have Michelle Obama thinking that because she never cared a whit about anyone in the military until people started watching her, no one else ever did either.

“I think I was like most Americans,” she told ABC News. “Pretty oblivious to the life of military families. Sort of taking it for granted.”

Perhaps Mrs. Obama did take these families for granted. Surely, however, it’s extraordinary to suggest that “most Americans” did the same. Certainly not the McCains, the Bidens and the Palins, each of whom had at least one son in uniform. More to the point, the presidential campaign in which she says the issue started “taking shape” for her came nearly seven years into a war that has inspired millions across America to step forward to help our troops.

Classless.

Unfuckingbelievable

The leader of the nation’s largest veterans organization says he is “deeply disappointed and concerned” after a meeting with President Obama today to discuss a proposal to force private insurance companies to pay for the treatment of military veterans who have suffered service-connected disabilities and injuries. The Obama administration recently revealed a plan to require private insurance carriers to reimburse the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in such cases.
“It became apparent during our discussion today that the President intends to move forward with this unreasonable plan,” said Commander David K. Rehbein of The American Legion. “He says he is looking to generate $540-million by this method, but refused to hear arguments about the moral and government-avowed obligations that would be compromised by it.“

If the American people can not pay for their wounded veterans, than by God we do not deserve a single veteran.

If the administration is willing to give money to AIG et al, then by God the administration damn well better be willing to give up Nancy Pelosi’s plane to pay for any and all veterans hurt by giving their service to this country.

If we aren’t, then we are doomed and deserving of it.

UPDATE: Ed Morrissey notes that besides the morality of this call, or lack thereof, there is the money to be concerned with.

Second, vets with service-related injuries and illnesses can only get third-party insurance because insurers know the US will cover all service-related medical treatment through the VA. If the government reneges on that commitment, it will put insurers on the hook for veterans already enrolled — but it will make it a lot harder for the next set of veterans to get insured. It will also raise costs to the rest of the insured by those companies, when the burden should fall on all Americans equally.

No need for this argument, because the first one SHOULD suffice. We are absolutely obligated to cover these men and women. Why on earth is this a question??

The Future of Iraq

Recent polling shows they are optimistic over there.

From a poll in February.

It says Iraqis are much more hopeful about the future and are increasingly pre-occupied with more conventional worries like the economy and jobs.

Click through for graphs etc.

Dances with Obama

If you didn’t read Rich Lowry yesterday, he’s up again today. He’s noting the Obama 3-step.

1. Denounce Bush
2. Pretend to reverse Bush
3. Adopt a “new” version of the exact Bush policy.

And then today’s headline:

U.S. Won’t Label Terror Suspects as ‘Combatants’

1. Denounce Bush. ‘Gitmo bad and torturing.’
2. Pretend to reverse Bush. ‘We don’t torture and Gitmo will be closed’
3. Adopt a “new” version. “These are not “enemy combatants, but we get to keep them at Gitmo”.

LOL

Funnier still, Ed Whelan suggests:

Maybe President Bush should just have changed the name of Guantanamo. Then he could have announced that there were no longer any enemy combatants at Guantanamo.

Don’t be surprised if Obama actually does this.

Obama’s latest adventure is to improve food safety. Let’s see what “new” plan he comes up with next.

T

Friday Linkapalooza

News flash: Mentioning Zimbabwe when discussing bad monetary policy is now racist!

Me: “Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe, Zimbabwe”
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Gregg takes on Geithner.
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If you haven’t read Charles Krauthammer today on stem cell research, do. He does make one odd assumption:

Last week, the White House invited me to a signing ceremony overturning the Bush (43) executive order on stem cell research. I assume this was because I have long argued in these columns and during my five years on the President’s Council on Bioethics that, contrary to the Bush policy, federal funding should be extended to research on embryonic stem cell lines derived from discarded embryos in fertility clinics.

Frankly I believe the White House wanted someone there in a wheel chair. Unfair, maybe, but I’ve become more and more suspicious of this administration the more they involve themselves in people’s personal lives.
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The Anchoress has a ton on the canceling of “the crisis”.

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Oh and don’t forget the Arab world’s impression of the Chas Freeman withdrawal. They don’t think that Obama is a bad vetter, they think he’s weak. Weak, weak.

“This is bad news for all justice-loving people in the world,” said Jeddah radio broadcaster and columnist Samar Fatany. “The Freeman episode indicates in plain terms that President Obama is weak.”

MRSA and Pigs

Nicholas Kristoff has a column up that’s a little scary.

That lovely staph infection with superbugs is seen more frequently around pig farms.
No direct connection yet…..

MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) sometimes arouses terrifying headlines as a “superbug” or “flesh-eating bacteria.” The best-known strain is found in hospitals, where it has been seen regularly since the 1990s, but more recently different strains also have been passed among high school and college athletes. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that by 2005, MRSA was killing more than 18,000 Americans a year, more than AIDS.

Fairness

No, not the ‘fairness doctrine’, which concerns fairness in private enterprise, but fairness in government.

Obama yesterday signed an order creating the ‘White House Council on Women and Girls’.

The new council will work to ensure each government agency is directly orientated to improving the economic status of women and to try to frame policies that establish a balance between work and family.

It will also work with the vice president’s office and the Justice Department to seek ways to halt violence against women in the United States and abroad, and work to improve women’s healthcare.

How is this fair??

And what the heck are the repercussions if the Dept of Agriculture or the Airforce or the Arctic Research Committee (these are 3 random ‘A’ agencies) don’t do something that could improve the economic status of women??

As I’ve heard time and time and time again – I’ll find it easier to believe we’re in an economic mess when this government starts acting like we are.

Fiscal Responsibility

In an effort to booster it’s fiscal responsibility credits, the Obama administration is looking into ways for citizens to pay for their own stuff.

No – not a couple of auto companies.
No – not your mortgages.
No – not the banks.

Instead this administration who is getting more and more embarrassing to folks is looking into ways to have Veterans, with service related injuries, pay for their own medical care!!!!!!

Read that again – or rather the story:

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki confirmed Tuesday that the Obama administration is considering a controversial plan to make veterans pay for treatment of service-related injuries with private insurance, but was told by lawmakers that it would be “dead on arrival” if sent to Congress.

Thank God for Congress in this instance. Good Lord, what the hell is the matter with this man??

(hts bloodthirstyliberal, Instapundit, and Scott)

And for a morning funny on this administration, Ed Morrissey notes that the NYTimes has “broken” the story of Charle’s Freeman’s backing out on the NIC chairmainship without ever having had a story on the controversy surrounding it! Anatreptic gives credit to bloggers/radio for this one. Based on all I saw in the papers on this story, I’d say Anatreptic has it right.