White House Runs Screaming From Fox, Goes After Cheney, Instead

From frying pan to fire:

In fairness, Dick Cheney totally started it. But like our mom used to say, “Then you be the one who stops it!”

Last night in a speech to the Center for Security Policy, the former vice president called out President Obama for being “afraid” to make a decision on troop levels in Afghanistan.

“The White House must stop dithering while America’s armed forces are in danger,” Cheney told the conservative gathering. “Make no mistake, signals of indecision out of Washington hurt our allies and embolden our adversaries.”

Sounds familiar. What’s suprising is not so much the vim with which the former vice president repeatedly goes after the Obama administration — but how reliably the Obama administration responds. Has no one heard of a dignified silence? Oh, wait. This is Washington. Never mind.

“What Vice President Cheney calls ‘dithering,’ President Obama calls his solemn responsibility to the men and women in uniform and to the American public,” said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. “I think we’ve all seen what happens when someone doesn’t take that responsibility seriously.”

Gibbs and his boss will come out second best in this contest. We’ve got the lightest of lightweights daring to challenge Vice President Dick Cheney – arguably the most intellectually substantive man in politics.

This will be fun to watch.

MSM Hostile to Catholic Church's Welcome of Anglicans

You’d think they’d know to mind their own business, but when the Catholic Church is involved, I guess they can’t help themselves:

Well, the media mantra about the Vatican’s welcome to Anglicans has begun, and the anti-Catholicism is about as ugly as it gets.

Venues such as National Public Radio, the London Times, and the Kansas City Star describe the Church as “poaching.” USA Today says the Church is “rustling.” Other media outlets used the term “luring.” Some question whether the move was a “hostile takeover.” And London Times’ Columnist Libby Purves says that “converts may choke on the raw meat of Catholicism.”

Mainstream newspapers such as the New York Times and Washington Post have used the word “bid.” The Boston Globe uses both the words “lure” and “bid.”

No matter how you look at it, they’re all unsavory terms used by the secular media to describe the Church’s actions.

They just can’t stand it – that millions of Anglicans might decide to re-unite with Rome. But, seriously, where else were they to go? Sure, Anglicans could have become Baptists, but the plain fact of the matter is that any believing Anglican will find the Catholic Church to be most “home like” of all the Christian denominations. As the Anglican leadership – and especially the American leadership – has strayed ever further from Christian teaching it becomes a matter of survival for Anglicans who take the Bible seriously…stay with the current leadership and risk slow apostasy, or unite with the Church and meld the streams together in to a larger and stronger Church. Its really as simple as that – had Anglicanism remained firmly committed to Christian principles, this issue never would have arisen.

But, here it is – and the elite are angry over it. They know what will come of it – a tiny, absurd sect calling itself Anglican will have all the sexually active gay bishops and female priestesses they want…but everyone will know that whatever the group is, “Christian” isn’t the word for it. They wanted something they could call Christian to lay in opposition to Rome and the Evangelicals…now they won’t have it.

36 Democrats Off the Obamacare Ranch?

Interesting – via New Editor:

Roll Call’s Steven T. Dennis and Tory Newmyer report:

Three dozen moderate Democrats are warning Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) that they must show that their health care bill will cut long-term costs or they will vote it down.

CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf has indicated that the bill being considered by the House does nothing to rein in the cost of health care, and therefore may not be sustainable outside the ten-year budget window, the Members say in the letter. We will be unable to support any health care legislation that doesn’t meet the president’s goals of driving down and holding down the cost of health care, as determined by CBO.

It just might be too much – especially for the common run of Democrat politicians, who most certainly don’t want to lose office.

NY-23: Calling on Scozzafava to Withdraw

From Real Clear Politics:

A dozen conservative publications and blogs are calling on New York 23 special election nominee Dede Scozzafava (R) to withdraw from the race. The online editorials, including from National Review, Washington Times, Washington Examiner and RedState.com, were all published at around noon today.

The calls for Scozzafava’s withdrawal come in response to her husband calling the police on Weekly Standard reporter John McCormack, who was attempting to question the GOP nominee on some of her policy stances following a campaign event. McCormack followed her into the parking lot for further questions, and a police officer later approached him, saying the candidate had been “startled.”

Conservative groups, including Club for Growth, are standing behind Doug Hoffman, who is running on the Conservative Party line in the Nov. 3 contest.

If she backs out now, we can almost be assured of a Hoffman victory – if she stays in, she might allow the Democrat to win in a district the GOP has held for more than a century and a half. If there’s an ounce of Republican in Scozzafava, she’ll get out. The time is past for the Scozzafavas of the political world – we want Republicans, not RINOs.

UPDATE: A new Rasmussen poll shows that 73% of GOP voters think the Congressional GOP is out of touch with the base. The nomination of Scozzafava proves this to be correct. Wake up, GOP leaders.

UPDATE II: The “stupid party” may be taught a lesson. Indeed.

Interview With Rick Lazio

On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to sit down with Rick Lazio, currently the only GOP candidate for governor in New York. The interview is posted here.

Some of you might be asking, “Why bother? It’s New York.” But, recent polls suggest that a Republican can not only win for governor (thanks to David Paterson’s incompetence), but also for the U.S. Senate (Kirsten Gillibrand’s seat.) So I think it be worth your while to check out my interview with Lazio. I found myself quite impressed from our chat. He’s really knows policy and has a good mix of private and public sector experience.

Cheney Condemns Obama's "Libel" of CIA Interrogators

Nothing like speaking truth to power, huh?

Maintaining his stature as one of the most forceful defenders of the Bush Administration’s defense policies former Vice President Dick Cheney accused President Obama of committing “libel” against CIA interrorgators on Wednesday

Mr. Cheney’s criticized the Obama White House in a wide-ranging address on foreign policy matters for abandoning commitments to allies in Poland and the Czech Republic in favor of the Russians, sacrificing American intelligence officials to satisfy the political left and “dithering” on taking action in Afghanistan, among other things.

The speech, delivered to the Center for Security Policy, comes as the White House considers U.S. Commander of Afghanistan Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s request for an additional 40,000 troops and struggles with the legal consequences of shutting down Guantanamo Bay.

It is rather sickening to watch Obama try to have it both ways – “I’m proud of the CIA, but the CIA is staffed with torturing beasts”. Obama wants to be both hawk and dove, and the combination of the two is, indeed, a strange bird.

In 9 short months, Obama has managed to undo a great deal of what was accomplished under Bush. We’ve lost allies and made no new friends (unless you think Putin and the Mullahs are our friends, now); we’ve lost credibility over our military commitments; we’ve made it clear that if you’re against us, we’ll appease you…its all bad, and unless Obama changes course, its going to get much worse.

Harry Reid is Really, Really Unpopular

Can’t get much worse than this:

As you may know, Harry Reid is up for re-election in 2010. Do you think he should be the Democratic nominee again or is it time for someone new to represent Democrats?

26% He should be the nominee, 39% Time for someone new

That’s gonna leave a mark – now, the problem is that the two best-known GOPers in the race (Lowden and Tarkanian) only poll 47% and 46%, respectively, against Harry Reid. This is good in that they both beat Reid in the polling, bad that they aren’t 10-20 percentage points ahead. Reid is the most beatable Democrat out there – but the relative weakness of the two leading GOPers shows the need for a fresh approach. Better for an outsider to be the nominee – someone not tied to the old politics.

Why the War on Fox?

Containment:

I can appreciate the Wow quality of someone, Ben Smith at Politico in this case, quickly and concisely naming what we’ve been debating for some time – why is the WH focusing so much on Fox News push back? The reality is, it’s still a bad idea because of this WH’s limited, top down view of the world.

But I think Mike Allen and Josh Gerstein nail the real explanation in their story today: The White House is working to prevent stories born on Fox from crossing over into more widely-viewed media. Most Americans still haven’t heard of Van Jones, for instance; and the strategy is now all about containment…

So what if Fox and some others, Right wing talk, for example, are effectively walled off, somehow? In the first place it likely won’t work. But even if it did, it’s still the American people with ever more media and sources to get their news that you ultimately have to control.

The American people are smarter than this White House in my opinion. They have an inherent ability to see and appreciate good information and BS when they come upon them, no matter where it turns up. That’s why more and more people have already begun tuning into Fox.

That sounds about right – and I agree it won’t work. In the throws of a national, political campaign, the Obama team managed to finesse its way around Obama’s cowardice, ignorance and radicalism…but now its just all about Obama, and the Administration doesn’t want people getting too long and good a look at just what is happening. Able to rely on the dying MSM, Team Obama has decided if they can just knock off Fox, they’ll have the functional equivalent of Orwell’s Ministry of Truth: the true goal of all good liberals.

But, the cat is already out of the bag – and let loose, in the final analysis, by Obama, himself. The fundamental problem is that in order to finesse their way around Obama’s flaws in 2008, Team Obama had to get Obama to say things in direct opposition to what Obama is currently up to. We’re supposed to be going all out to win Afghanistan; we’re supposed to already be out of Iraq; we’re supposed to be watching the Democrats and Republicans negotiating together (on TV!) about the way forward; we’re supposed to be coming together in gigantic, loving embrace. None of this was on the actual agenda, but it is what Obama was made to say. And now they are hoist upon their own petard – and are absurdly hoping that if they can just derail Fox, all will be well.

Ah, what tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive – nothing will give me greater pleasure than to watch Obama and Co fall flat on their face, tripped up by their own lies.

Did Capitalism Fail?

Mish explains:

…you can’t lose what you did not have. Capitalism did not fail, government regulation as it inevitably does, failed.

Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FDIC, Social Security, government bailouts of failed institutions have nothing to do with capitalism. Nor do tax breaks that favor housing over rent, nor does a government running HUG or FHA to support social goals.

The SEC took a perfectly fine credit rating system based on actual performance and turned it into sponsorship of Moody’s, Fitch, and the S&P. After SEC sponsorship, the “Big Three” got paid on the basis of the volume of business they did instead of how accurately they did business.

Virtually everything that failed can be traced back to government intervention into the free markets, especially the creation of the Fed itself.

Of course, when we say “capitalism” we really mean, “free markets”. The word “capitalism” is a socialist concept – an assertion that in a free market, there is actually a central control using its power to exploit the masses. Actually, in a free market, things are free and while individual con artists might sucker some individuals, there is no means to, say, create a Fannie Mae or Goldman Sachs to loot the economy. To be entirely honest about it, the capitalists started the ball rolling towards non-capitalism – in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the Trusts were created to restrain trade and drive up prices. Teddy Roosevelt took a stab at them, but eventually they were smart enough to get on side with Big Government, and the two grew together. At this point, there’s no difference in functional terms between Big Government and Big Corporation outside of a slightly better efficiency in Big Corporation (and it really is only slight).

Our task, as conservatives, is to reform this – to return our economy back to a genuine free market, and then conserve that for future generations. We have to break up both Big Government and Big Corporation – if we can do that, then we, the people, can start creating wealth again for ourselves, rather than the maw of Big Government, or the pockets of Big Corporation.

UPDATE: The Myth of the Multiplier; case closed against the asinine concepts of Keynes.

America Now Over 6 Million Jobs Shy of Administration's Projections

Good job, Barry:

The table below compares the White House’s February 2009 projection of the number of jobs that would be created by the 2009 stimulus law (through the end of 2010) with the actual change in state payroll employment through September 2009 (the latest figures available). According to the data, 49 States and the District of Columbia have lost jobs since stimulus was enacted. Only North Dakota has seen net job creation following the February 2009 stimulus. While President Obama claimed the result of his stimulus bill would be the creation of 3.5 million jobs, the Nation has already lost a total of 2.7 million – a difference of 6.2 million jobs.

A link to the aforementioned table.

Out here in Nevada, we’re close to 68,000 jobs short of what Obama and his Democrats promised. And, remember, we had to rush, rush, RUSH the Spendulus through because if we didn’t, there would be massive job losses.