Courtesy Joel Barbee, newjerseynewsroom.com
As usual, the Obama Administration is trying to spin the 10.2% numbers although we have been knocking on this double-digit door for some time. It is pathetic for Democrats to boast about how their $787B so-called stimulus has "saved" jobs (let's see: just how expensive are these "saved" jobs we are talking about...) Let's make things perfectly clear: businesses (and jobs) will not grow in an adverse environment where the White House threatens job creators with tax hikes, small businesses with tax penalties for failing to structure compensation with health care benefits, globally-uncompetitive federal regulations stifling innovation in the financial services sector, etc. Now it is true that jobs tend to be a lagging indicator in any recovery, but Obama doesn't seem to realize that he's been his own worst enemy from the get-go: selling a bloated, partisan so-called stimulus bill with unrealistic expectations regarding employment, talking down the economy (especially in his first several weeks in office), threatening successful corporations with international operations with tax hikes, creating uncertainty for business with a flurry of initiatives, government intervention in the marketplace, etc. The single best thing Obama could do to improve the jobs figure is to hold the line on any discussion of new taxes, regulations, government intervention, spending initiatives, etc.
Dems Spinning the Congressional Special Elections
I listened to strident Florida Congresswoman Wasserman-Schultz on Fox News trying to make the best of a bad hand in last Tuesday's special elections by reading something in the votes for Democrats to replace a Democrat (CA-10) and a Republican (NY-23). A Democratic lieutenant governor winning a district by 10 points over a political novice where registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by nearly 20%? Or a Democratic candidate beats a third-party candidate by less than 5 points? I'm serious about this: Schultz was interpreting the results as an implicit referendum on the horrendous Democratic health care bill. Sheer hubris and chutzpah (I'm sure Wasserman-Schultz knows the meaning of the word...)
Unchastened White House Still Going After Fox News
An unnamed Democratic political strategist told the LA Times that.the White House told him or her that "we had better not see you on [Fox News] again". Pat Caddell, a frequent Democratic contributor to Fox News, says that he has heard from other (unnamed) Democratic consultants whom have repeated similar stories: "I find it appalling. When the White House gets in the business of suppressing dissent and comment, particularly from its own party, it hurts itself." The White House's rationalization? They consider Fox News to be a sort of media virus: Fox News "lies" get propagated to other media outlets not easily manipulated by the White House
Political Cartoon
Chuck Asay's cartoon does a good job at how Obama's performance has been almost the exact opposite of the conditions necessary for business and job growth: more obtrusive interference in the government, e.g., with growth-crippling regulation (e.g., of the financial services sector), trade protectionism, an attempted Trojan horse hijacking of the private health care sector, stiff new energy taxes (i.e., cap and trade), meddling with private sector compensation packages, reworking bankruptcies to favor his union cronies over bondholders, and bloated federal spending and massive deficits, which crowds out business investment and raises the risk of job-crushing inflation. The fact is that Obama postures this phony openness to new ideas: he talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk.
Musical Interlude: Three Songs by Dan Hill
Dan Hill is perhaps best known for his late 70's smash hit, "Sometimes When We Touch", and an 80's duet with Vonda Shepard "Can't We Try?" But my favorites are a powerful ballad about a new father-to-be's love for his preborn child, "Unborn Heart", and a song I hadn't heard until I bought a greatest-hits compilation, "Daddy's Song". There are a number of terrific songs about a son's love for his father, including Bread's "Everything I Own" and Mike and the Mechanics "Living Years". These songs deal with wistful recollections of their late father; Dan's song is different because he's dealing with the emotions over his dad's mortality; his father facing a life-threatening operation. In his lyrics reprinted below, I emphasize in boldface the verses which seem particularly powerful to me.
I also embed a more recent song from Dan Hill, struggling with the memories of his now deceased father. Dan was working through a number of experiences, including the issues of racial identity, not unlike Obama, both having a black father and white mother. (There is a significant difference, of course; Dan's father did not abandon his mother, and Dan struggled all his life to win his father's acceptance.) Dan Hill's brilliant interpretation and performance of his own exquisite "I am My Father's Son" is well worth listening to.
When she told me
She was gonna have a baby
A part of me went weightless
For the first time in my life
There was nothing I could say
It's like a miracle from the stars above
Paralized with fear
I was overcome with love
She said soon you'll hear the beating
Of an unborn heart
This is the answer
You've been searching for so hard
And for the first time in my life I felt
The wave of love so deep
As I listened for the unborn child's heartbeat
I said something stupid like, how are you feeling
She smiled the warmest smile I've ever seen
Ohhh, I guess that said it all
Now were a far cry from the storybook romance
Something in her eyes, made me crumble
I reached out for her hand
She said soon, you'll hear the beating
Of an unborn heart
This is the answer
You've been searching for so hard
And for the first time in my life I felt
The wave of love so deep
As I listened for the unborn child's heartbeat
Now we all know how crazy
This world can be sometimes
And I lie awake at night and wonder
How a child survives
Beyond the danger in the strangers
And the inhumanity
Lord give us strength to someday find a world that lives in peace
Ohhh
Soon, you'll hear the beating
Of an unborn heart
This is the answer
You've been searching for so hard
And for the first time in my life I felt
The wave of love so deep
As I listened for the unborn child's heartbeat
Ohhh, I can almost hear the beating...
Daddys Song - Dan Hill
I always knew, this time would come
still I'm not ready, is anyone?
As a child I believed daddies lived on and on
I guess I was wrong.
We had our moments, didn't we though?
thought we'd never speak again, the day I left home.
I was so much like you, swore I'd always be strong,
I guess I was wrong.
Why when it rains, does it always pour?
Why does this pain feel like nothing I felt before?
as a child I believed daddies lived on and on
I guess I was wrong.
Tried so hard to prove myself in your eyes
could never live up to your standards so high.
Brown skin on white sheets, your hand reaches for mine
daddy don't cry.
Ooooh
Why when it rains does it always pour?
As your first son I couldn't have loved you more.
As a child I believed daddies lived on and on
I guess I was wrong.
Daddy your love for my mother, your wife,
moves me more deeply than all else in my life.
In the hospital bed, she holds you 'till dawn
loves all that lives on.
As a child I believed daddies lived on and on
perhaps I wasn't wrong.
