Nanny State on Steroids

Now hear this:

1. "Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy has declared Thursday “Diaper Need Awareness Day” as part of a campaign by The Nutmeg State to pressure Washington into providing free diapers to low-income families.
Supporters will host a fundraiser and a panel discussion in New Haven on the public health risks for babies whose diapers aren't changed frequently enough."

2. Obama has proposed an executive order to facilitate reducing interest rates on homeowners' underwater current mortgage obligations.

3. He is "announc[ing] a plan [today] that w[ill] allow Americans to consolidate and reduce interest rates on their student loans."

Why don't we taxpayers just task the Obama Administration with collecting 80% (you gotta leave something for them to live on) of all wealth and earnings in this country and pay for everyone's home, child rearing expenses and education and be done with it.

Defeating Obama is a Jobs Bill

“I’m also dealing with a Republican … leader (Senator McConnell-my addition) who said that his No. 1 goal was to beat me — not put Americans back to work, not grow the economy, not help small businesses expand, but to defeat me,” Obama said.

Actually, replacing Obama with a conservative president is probably the best plan out there to "put Americans back to work, ... grow the economy, ... help small businesses expand." It would address all these goals in one swell foop (ha ha ha, a little levity here). Root out a primary engine of these problems and you clear the field for policies that would be stillborn under the heavy hand of Obama's administration.

Clear the football field of tackles such as EPA's Lisa Jackson (action-block hydrocarbon development and the jobs it would engender), Attorney General Eric Holder (actions-undermining the economic confidence provided by the rule of law by: imposing retributive reverse racial preferences, blocking prosecution of Black Panther violations of voters' rights, criminalizing terrorists, sending high-powered guns to Mexican drug cartels), Senators Dodd and Frank and Fed Chairman Bernanke (actions-interference in free-market flow of capital) and you vastly improve the chances of a touchdown or at least a field goal.

Yes, Senator McConnell's primary goal is Obama's defeat, and all the derivative benefits that can achieve.

Beware the Careless Unleashing of the Furies of Class Warfare

Diffidently attacking wealthy and powerful targets (banks, "the rich," "millionaires and billionaires") in the name of "the folks" appears to be the new tack taken by the liberals to shore up their re-electability. It is a dangerous tack.

Stir up inchoate resentment and uninformed rage and you may end up with ungovernable chaos. This monster may target all authority, the Obama administration included.

So far, the demonstrators are crowding parks near big banks such as Bank of America. At some point, they may figure out that politicians (who need the public's votes) are more responsive to demonstrations that are corporations. Their targets may then shift to Statehouses and the White House. They may or may not differentiate between the parties.

They are being fed with donations. One demonstrator, named "Spooky," was quoted on 10/17/11 by Matt Labash of the Weekly Standard as saying: “I ain’t gonna lie about it. I’m homeless. I’m gonna take advantage of something like this. Not gonna pretend like I’m some huge political rocker ‘f— the government!’ when I know I’m not... But I’ve already had a few people tell me this is a homeless man’s dream camp” (italics added).

They are being provided with bathroom facilities (though no showers). In this same article, Matt Labash asks a demonstrator where to find a restroom: "does she know where I can find one? She says at 'The People’s McDonald’s' across the street on Broadway (the usually heartless multinational corporation has been kind enough to let all OWS comers use the facilities)."

One wonders how many would stick around without logistical support. Or when the weather turns cold. This blob so far seems to be inchoate and opportunistic, justifying their presence with random and unrelated complaints and demands. A mob with no leaders and no concrete goals can easily be turned against new targets. Caveat emptor to those who endorse this creature.

Power Hour From the Chicago Gang

Some observations:
1. Obama makes frivolous speeches disingenuously attacking his opponents. He puts little effort or thought into governing. He does not appear to be a man of deep thought, just slogans and "social justice" memes he has seemingly indiscriminately absorbed throughout his life. He seems to like the power and adulation that comes with the office but not the work.

2. Obama acts as one who wishes to be a monarch, not a president answerable to the voters and on an equal footing with Congress and the Supreme Court.
a. He has twice chastised, warned and insulted the judges of the Supreme Court, evidently hoping to swing a figurative tire iron to influence the Court's decision on his health care law.
b. He recess-appointed officials when Congress was not in recess by declaring that, in his opinion, they were in recess.
c. He bypasses the law-making power that resides in Congress by allowing his unelected, appointed bureaucrats (Lisa Jackson, head of the EPA, Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of Health and Human Services) to create regulations that Congress has never approved or passed (control of carbon di-oxide as a pollutant even though it is produced in great quantity by - get this scary thought - trees; mandating what all health insurance policies must cover).

3. Eric Holder, true to this administration's holding of itself as above the laws of this country,
a. tries to skate around Congress with impunity with his dishonest testimony regarding Fast and Furious.
b. refuses to hold the New Black Panthers to account for voter intimidation a couple of years ago (caught on tape) and now, illegally putting a price on a man's head (George Zimmerman, who says he shot and killed Trayvon Martin).

These patterns of behavior are characteristic of local machine politics or of third world governing. The Constitution of the United States was formulated based on a certain fundamental sense of trust and fair play and seems to provide only clumsy and slow mechanisms to respond to such frontal attacks.

Obama Doesn't Like His Day Job

When Obama speaks in public these days, he seems disengaged and bored. He can fire up his body language when he shifts to campaign mode. He never seems to talk about policy or the philosophy of government, or for that matter about concrete plans. A job here, a tax increase there, a mean old conservative blocking his every humanitarian effort. But no strategy. No structure. No overarching comprehension of his job. No fundamental grasp of a philosophy of government.

I believe he enjoys (as we all do) what he does best - rallying some group with energetic (albeit disingenuous) speeches. He seems to dislike governing.

He has intimated that he would like to be able to simply impose his preferred programs without all the messy negotiating with Congress that a democracy requires. He likes giving orders (er, policy guidance) to Congress and the public, but not actually structuring the proposals in concrete, written terms. First of all, this would commit him to a position he would have to defend. But secondly, it requires the hard and sometimes tedious work of thinking, analyzing, and above all, making decisions. It is like having to go back to school and work. No fun there. So he leaves the hard stuff to his staff, to Congress, to "czars." Uncomfortable taking an actual position on an issue (he voted "present" most of the time while in Congress), a difficult thing for him to do when it appears he does not understand a lot of the more esoteric issues, he hopes for a consensus from his advisors. Failing that, he removes himself to a lofty above-the-fray pose and allows others to make decisions and take the heat.

For Obama, the thrill of the chase (for the Presidency) appears to trump the thrill of ownership. But then why is he working so hard to win another 4 years? Embarrassed to lose, I suppose, but his pride is inflicting a high price on his country.