Quote of the Day
America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.
Evan Esar
Charles Krauthammer: "The New Comeback Kid"? Hardly...
Obama's signing the tax cut extension compromise today is being viewed by one of my favorite conservative commentators as an inflection point in his Presidency, a quicker response to the mid-term elections than Bill Clinton's recovery by forcing Speaker Gingrich to blink first in a government shutdown game of chicken. Quite frankly, Mr. Krauthammer, you are putting lipstick on a pig.
The primary reason why Obama agreed to a compromise is because he had no alternative. The House passed the class warfare bill earlier in the lame duck session. The Senate GOP blocked it. Obama was then left with a dilemma: he could call the GOP's bluff in letting the middle-class tax cuts expire, or he could compromise. There were a couple of things clear: (1) Obama, with his approval ratings underwater, would undoubtedly get blamed for not delivering on his middle-cut tax cuts, and (2) if there's anything characteristic of Obama's decision making, he tends to be risk averse; for example, he took his time over the Afghanistan surge decision, and he renominated Robert Gates of the Defense Department and Ben Bernanke as Fed Reserve chairman, both of whom were George W. Bush appointees. Even though Obama hasn't had a history of compromising, the clock was running out on him--less than a month until the Bush tax cuts expired.
"The Republicans could have gotten everything they wanted on the Bush tax cuts retroactively in January without fear of an Obama veto." Nonsense. First of all, the Democrats will still control both the Senate and the White House during the new term. Second, there is a likelihood that the stock market and businesses would have reacted negatively if a tax deal had failed; the issue is not only the taxes themselves but to uncertainty with hiring, payroll, investments, etc., and the market could have responded by realizing capital gains under expiring lower investment taxes. Third, the House will still have an opportunity to make compensatory cuts starting in January, and in part this has been guaranteed by the failure of the $1.1T omnibus budget bill in the Senate. Keep in mind that the costs will accumulate over the calendar year--during which the House can and will make compensatory changes. We didn't have to negotiate budget cuts this month; we've simply deferred the austerity measures until the Republicans have a stronger hand. Fourth, as bad as President Obama's rating are, Congress' ratings are even worse. The last thing the new GOP House leadership needs is picking a fight against Obama, whom has enough Democrats in either House to sustain a veto; in essence, this becomes a rehash of the Clinton-Gingrich feud. Moreover, it's unlikely that Obama wouldn't have gotten some of his basic points in the long run, like unemployment compensation with 15 million Americans out of work. I also think it was just as important for the Republicans to prove they could work with the Democrats; moreover, this clears the deck for the House to deal with spending, regulatory, and tax reform without engaging in a class warfare stalemate.
In fact, one could argue from a pragmatic standpoint, Obama's concession on the upper 2% tax bracket was more symbolic than substantive in nature. It's really ludicrous to view maintaining the status quo on taxes as a setback for Democrats; the $70B or so from a Clinton tax bracket rate isn't going to resolve $1T deficits on an ongoing basis, and revenue distribution is already more progressive than it has been for decades.
But, Charles, as Dr. Phil McGraw might say, it's time to get real. The stimulus, health care, and financial reform bills will never go away; he can't run away from the fact of the biggest deficits in US history; his mismanagement of the BP oil spill won't be forgotten. Over 3.5 million jobs have been lost on his watch, and it's highly unlikely he'll get to breakeven by the November 2012 elections. A lot of independents took a chance on Obama's leadership and his empty promises of a post-partisan DC, and he's never going to be able to put that genie back in the bottle.
I agree with Krauthammer that we should not underestimate Obama; it is very difficult to defeat an incumbent President, never mind a congenial one with a billion-dollar warchest. Barack Obama is more popular than his policies, and to some extent, the GOP House will be vested in his success over the next term of Congress. He will retain the support of progressives, just as McCain maintained most conservatives in 2008, even those whom bitterly criticized him over his Bush tax cut votes, immigration, and campaign reform. I have little doubt that Obama will play the good cop while the GOP House will play bad cop on austerity measures, and anyone thinking that austerity budget measures will be easy need look no further back than Greece, Britain, Ireland, or France recently.
It's Nice To Know Federal Reserve Examiners Have Their Priorities...
Now let me get this straight: a bank has a First Amendment right to run ads as political speech for or against candidates for public office, but heaven forbid a teller at a small Perkins, Oklahoma bank should have a cross at her counter or wear a "Merry Christmas" button or the bank should display a Biblical verse of the day on its website. According to the regulators in their review last week, these violate a regulation forbidding "the use of words, symbols, models and other forms of communication [which] express, imply or suggest a discriminatory preference or policy of exclusion." It is a quantum leap of logic that suggests that the constitutionally protected right of religious speech is, in fact, a "discriminatory preference or policy of exclusion". [In fact, Christians regard salvation as intrinsically open to all people.]
The thuggish regulators threatened to refer their unreasonable allegations to the Justice Department for further action. Senator Inhofe and Congressman Lucas have responded by filing a protest with Fed Reserve chair Ben Bernanke. Mr. Bernanke, since when is censorship or political correctness a priority of the Fed? What does it have to do sound banking practices?
Venezuela Sentenced to 18 Months Under Dictator Hugo Chavez
Chavez, who has used his undemocratic decree powers in the past for doing small things like counterproductively nationalizing the oil industry and packing the country's Supreme Court, asked for a year, and his legislative allies added on a 50% bonus. Not content with wrecking the rest of the country's economy, Chavez and his allies have made it easier for the government to take out private sector banks and to reward bank performance by allowing community organizers to pocket a percentage of the banks' profits.
Disturbing Football Referee Incident
Washington high school running back Ronnie Hastie scored a touchdown, briefly genuflected and raised his index finger to the sky as a tribute to God, through Whom all things are possible; the referee threw a penalty flag, claiming "excessive celebration". As you might expect, the Washington Interscholastic Athletic Association stood beyond the referee's indefensible decision, even suggesting other ludicrous excuses. What's next? Are they going to throw a baseball player out of the game for making the sign of the cross as the he settles into the batter's box?
Disturbing Juvenile Incidents
A week ago, a New York City high school Spanish teacher, Lissedia Batista, 4 months pregnant, attempted to intercede in a fight of two young teenage girls over a classroom chair and was elbowed in the process, falling to the ground and subsequently miscarrying her unborn child. She reportedly doesn't intend to press charges against the 15-year-old girls.
In this clip, a Florida DeSoto County basketball player, ejected from the game for his part in a scuffle with an opponent, decided to respond to the referee in a physical manner:
Political Humor
It’s perfectly fine to get a co-worker a gift certificate for a full-body massage. It’s not OK to start giving them one. - Jimmy Kimmel
[I do realize shoppers are looking to save money in buying gifts, but a discount certificate to have a massage done by a TSA trainee?]
Several TSA officers have formed a holiday choir at the Los Angeles International Airport. Which, of course, answers the question: How can going through airport security possibly get any worse? - Jimmy Fallon
[I still think "He Touched Me", "Touch Me", "Touch Me When We're Dancing", and "Touch Me In The Morning" are NOT holiday songs...]
Musical Interlude: Holiday Tunes
Mahalia Jackson, "Go Tell It On The Mountain". I remember singing this song with my high school choir, but Mahalia takes this traditional African-American spiritual to another level; what an amazing cover--I wouldn't change a thing!
