Tag: Politics

Rewarded for failure

Now and then I dip into Steve Sailer’s America’s Half Blood Prince: Barack Obama’s Story of Race and Inheritance for its lucidity and intelligence but mainly to add to my understanding of what makes Barack tick. 

Based on this analysis, he will be due for another promotion if he fails at president:

Obama’s career largely consists of failing upwards. He undertakes careers — community organizer, antidiscrimination lawyer, leftwing charity chairman, South Side politician — to fulfill the dreams from his father, to help “in your people’s struggle,” but doesn’t accomplish much of significance in that overwhelming undertaking.

In fact, he may make things marginally worse — the fundamental flaw in Obama’s career philosophy is that each of his jobs has been intended to help poor blacks get more goodies out of whites, but government handouts undermine black moral fiber, leaving the black community worse off morally than before the Great Society.  . . . .

Yet, Obama is then rewarded by white people with a promotion anyway. They like his style, even if he doesn’t get any results.

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Rewarded for failure

Now and then I dip into Steve Sailer’s America’s Half Blood Prince: Barack Obama’s Story of Race and Inheritance for its lucidity and intelligence but mainly to add to my understanding of what makes Barack tick. 

Based on this analysis, he will be due for another promotion if he fails at president:

Obama’s career largely consists of failing upwards. He undertakes careers — community organizer, antidiscrimination lawyer, leftwing charity chairman, South Side politician — to fulfill the dreams from his father, to help “in your people’s struggle,” but doesn’t accomplish much of significance in that overwhelming undertaking.

In fact, he may make things marginally worse — the fundamental flaw in Obama’s career philosophy is that each of his jobs has been intended to help poor blacks get more goodies out of whites, but government handouts undermine black moral fiber, leaving the black community worse off morally than before the Great Society.  . . . .

Yet, Obama is then rewarded by white people with a promotion anyway. They like his style, even if he doesn’t get any results.

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Illinois a toss-up for U.S. senate

This race remains close:

The U.S. Senate race in Illinois is now a virtual toss-up, with Democratic State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias holding a slight 44% to 41% lead over Republican Congressman Mark Kirk.

Tough nut for Repubs to crack, this Illinois.  It’s also blue and heading for fiscal trouble.  Fear not.  The incumbent Dem governor has the answer:

SPRINGFIELD – — Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn pitched a 33 percent income tax increase Wednesday, framing the debate as a choice between finding more money or hurting schoolchildren.

Ah yes, the children.  Teacher unions too, but forget that.

In any case, we have here the marvelous religious-style faith in taking money out of private hands and giving it to our noble, trusted Bureau-Dems.

Nothing’s too good for children and poor people, you see.  But it’s a misplaced faith:

There is a distinct pattern throughout American history: When tax rates are reduced, the economy’s growth rate improves and living standards increase.

Good tax policy has a number of interesting side effects. For instance, history tells us that tax revenues grow and “rich” taxpayers pay more tax when marginal tax rates are slashed.

This means lower income citizens bear a lower share of the tax burden – a consequence that should lead class-warfare politicians to support lower tax rates.

This will never play with Dem netroots, SEIU, IEA and the like.  So?

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Illinois for Brady

Hello, everybody in Illinois and all the ships at sea: Brady is up by 10 over Quinn!

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state finds State Senator Bill Brady leading [Gov.] Quinn 47% to 37%. Six percent (6%) prefer some other candidate, and nine percent (9%) are undecided.

It’s the first week there’s been a Republican candidate.  Brady won by a whopping 193 votes over an opponent who’s on board now with his candidacy.

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Rahm v. Barack’s altar servers

Jonah Goldberg in Chi Trib discusses the clash of idealism and realism in the Obama White House, where the true believers clash with Rahm Emanuel. Obama

wants to be “transformative” like Ronald Reagan. But such a transformation requires an electorate willing and capable of being transformed. Obama and his acolytes misread the public, thinking voters were as worshipful as they were.

Some of us never were, but lots were. Trouble is for the true B’s,

Emanuel’s understanding of the political landscape puts him in the reality-based community. And that is a community the Obama cult refuses to join.

It’s just as well.  Either way, it’s bad for the U.S., whether more or less socialism.  The former is not passing, as we know.  The latter might, and that would be very bad.

Rahm v. Barack's altar servers

Jonah Goldberg in Chi Trib discusses the clash of idealism and realism in the Obama White House, where the true believers clash with Rahm Emanuel. Obama

wants to be “transformative” like Ronald Reagan. But such a transformation requires an electorate willing and capable of being transformed. Obama and his acolytes misread the public, thinking voters were as worshipful as they were.

Some of us never were, but lots were. Trouble is for the true B’s,

Emanuel’s understanding of the political landscape puts him in the reality-based community. And that is a community the Obama cult refuses to join.

It’s just as well.  Either way, it’s bad for the U.S., whether more or less socialism.  The former is not passing, as we know.  The latter might, and that would be very bad.

Illinois a toss-up for U.S. senate

This race remains close:

The U.S. Senate race in Illinois is now a virtual toss-up, with Democratic State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias holding a slight 44% to 41% lead over Republican Congressman Mark Kirk.

Tough nut for Repubs to crack, this Illinois.  It’s also blue and heading for fiscal trouble.  Fear not.  The incumbent Dem governor has the answer:

SPRINGFIELD – — Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn pitched a 33 percent income tax increase Wednesday, framing the debate as a choice between finding more money or hurting schoolchildren.

Ah yes, the children.  Teacher unions too, but forget that.

In any case, we have here the marvelous religious-style faith in taking money out of private hands and giving it to our noble, trusted Bureau-Dems.

Nothing’s too good for children and poor people, you see.  But it’s a misplaced faith:

There is a distinct pattern throughout American history: When tax rates are reduced, the economy’s growth rate improves and living standards increase.

Good tax policy has a number of interesting side effects. For instance, history tells us that tax revenues grow and “rich” taxpayers pay more tax when marginal tax rates are slashed.

This means lower income citizens bear a lower share of the tax burden – a consequence that should lead class-warfare politicians to support lower tax rates.

This will never play with Dem netroots, SEIU, IEA and the like.  So?

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Nuances and evasions: the Obama way

In his America’s Half-Blood Prince: Barack Obama’s “Story of Race and Inheritance,” Steve Sailer compares O. to an art forger who had his principles, among them not to sign Rembrandt to the Rembrandt fakes which he artfully drew on 17th-century paper, figuring that if museums were dumb and greedy enough to buy a masterpiece cheap or think that’s what they were doing, it was their problem, not his. So Obama during his presidential campaign (pp. 184-185)

. . . . prefer[red]to mislead without lying outright. He like[d] to obscure the truth under so many thoughtful nuances, dependent clauses, Proustian details, lawyerly evasions, and eloquent summarizations of his opponents’ arguments that the members of his audience ultimately just make up little daydreams about how he must agree with them. Rather like Hebborn [the forger], Obama seems to feel that he’s not to blame if the press and public want to be fooled.

“I can’t say I blame him,” adds Sailer. Ah those thoughtful nuances.  They send me.

No global warming in 1987, NY Times reported

NOAA in 1989, per NYT: No global warming since 1895:

While the nation’s weather in individual years or even for periods of years has been hotter or cooler and drier or wetter than in other periods, the new study shows that over the last century there has been no trend in one direction or another. The study, made by scientists for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was published in the current issue of Geophysical Research Letters. It is based on temperature and precipitation readings taken at weather stations around the country from 1895 to 1987.

What do you know about that?  That was before Al Gore knew better and convinced so many people. The excellent Chicago-based NewsAlert unearthed it.

Nuclear reform

Dick Durbin should be arrested for impersonating a U.S. senator.  His latest violation is to ask supporters to sign up for filibuster reform!!

The American people are sick of process blocking progress. They’re fed up with an arbitrary tradition that allows a minority of Senators to prevent popular, much- needed legislation from even coming to a vote. Frankly, so am I.

I love the “frankly.”  It means he’s levelling with us.

When our Founding Fathers wrote the Constitution and drafted the initial rules of the Senate, they never intended requiring a supermajority to pass any and all legislation. They just wanted to be sure that Senators took time to carefully debate and consider bills before taking votes. That’s why I urge you to support the Harkin-Shaheen proposal, or similar filibuster reform proposals.

Such devotion to the founders. When is the nuclear option a reform?  When Dems have trouble getting what they want.