Wednesday, January 29, 2014
State of the Disunion Speech: more of the same
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
The 3 NOs vs. The 5 Conditions
Heads of state from eight Arab countries attended a summit conference in Khartoum, Sudan held from August 29 to September 1, 1967. The meeting formulated the Arab consensus that formed the basis of the policies of most Arab states participating in the conflict with Israel until the Yom Kippur War of 1973. The resolution adopted September 1, 1967 called for the continued struggle against Israel, the creation of a fund to assist the economics of Egypt and Jordan, the lifting of an Arab oil boycott against the West and a new agreement to end the war in Yemen.
The text of the agreement reads as follows:
It is best remembered for the 3 NOs:Source Wikipedia
- The conference has affirmed the unity of Arab ranks, the unity of joint action and the need for coordination and for the elimination of all differences. The Kings, Presidents and representatives of the other Arab Heads of State at the conference have affirmed their countries' stand by an implementation of the Arab Solidarity Charter which was signed at the third Arab summit conference in Casablanca.
- The conference has agreed on the need to consolidate all efforts to eliminate the effects of the aggression on the basis that the occupied lands are Arab lands and that the burden of regaining these lands falls on all the Arab States.
- The Arab Heads of State have agreed to unite their political efforts at the international and diplomatic level to eliminate the effects of the aggression and to ensure the withdrawal of the aggressive Israeli forces from the Arab lands which have been occupied since the aggression of June 5. This will be done within the framework of the main principles by which the Arab States abide, namely, no peace with Israel, no recognition of Israel, no negotiations with it, and insistence on the rights of the Palestinian people in their own country.
- \The conference of Arab Ministers of Finance, Economy and Oil recommended that suspension of oil pumping be used as a weapon in the battle. However, after thoroughly studying the matter, the summit conference has come to the conclusion that the oil pumping can itself be used as a positive weapon, since oil is an Arab resource which can be used to strengthen the economy of the Arab States directly affected by the aggression, so that these States will be able to stand firm in the battle. The conference has, therefore, decided to resume the pumping of oil, since oil is a positive Arab resource that can be used in the service of Arab goals. It can contribute to the efforts to enable those Arab States which were exposed to the aggression and thereby lost economic resources to stand firm and eliminate the effects of the aggression. The oil-producing States have, in fact, participated in the efforts to enable the States affected by the aggression to stand firm in the face of any economic pressure.
- The participants in the conference have approved the plan proposed by Kuwait to set up an Arab Economic and Social Development Fund on the basis of the recommendation of the Baghdad conference of Arab Ministers of Finance, Economy and Oil.
- The participants have agreed on the need to adopt the necessary measures to strengthen military preparation to face all eventualities.
- The conference has decided to expedite the elimination of foreign bases in the Arab States.
NO peace with Israel!At Khartoum, Nasser was promised badly needed economic assistancein exchange for his pledge to stop destabilizing the region and end his propaganda attacks against the Persian Gulf monarchies. This meant that Egypt, along with the other Arab states, would focus on consolidating power at home and on pressing economic problems rather than on revolutionary schemes to unify the Arabs. After 1967 Arab regimes increasingly viewed Israel and the Palestinian Arab problem not as the key to revolutionary change of the Arab state system, but in terms of how they affected their domestic political stability.
NO recognition of Israel!
NO negotiations with Israel!
Contrast those NOs with the conditions that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has set down to bring peace to the region.
In a speech before the Knesset’s plenum in its special Herzl Day session, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu laid down five conditions for a peace treaty with the Palestinian Authority Arabs. These are:This has been his position from the beginning of his Administration with the last statement a slap in the face to the EU and President Obama. There is no way, no condition, no amount of bribery or coercion that could force Israel into giving up any grain of sand of Jerusalem. It would take an army to force the Jews out of it.
Full Story
- The Palestinians must recognize Israel as the Jewish nation’s state.
- The treaty must be an end to the conflict.
- The Arab refugee problem must be solved outside of Israel’s borders.
- A Palestinian state will have to be demilitarized and a peace treaty must safeguard Israel’s security.
- The settlement blocs will remain within the state of Israel and Jerusalem will remain its united capital.
There should be just one more condition:The immediate return of Gilad Shalit, safe, in good health, and unharmed!
Monday, November 30, 2009
Climategate: The Beginning of the End?

J. D. Longstreet
****************
The “Environuts” are busy these days “backing and filling” in a desperate attempt to “cover-up” the biggest hoax ever perpetrated on mankind. I refer, of course, to the Manmade Global Warming Hoax they have been running on us for decades. Now THEY HAVE BEEN CAUGHT – red-handed – AND THEY HAVE NO CHOICE BUT TO ATTEMPT TO SALVAGE AS MUCH AS THEY CAN.
The aforementioned Environuts have had decades to perfect the manner in which they control the formulation and the distribution of their propaganda. So, they are no slouches when it comes to controlling the leftist Mainstream Media, especially since the MsM is so ready and willing to lend their assistance to any and all efforts to aid the Environuts toward their end goal which is, dare I say it – a “One World Government”, or as THEY refer to it: Global Governance.
There was a time, in the not too distant past, when folks laughed and shrugged off any suggestion that there was a behind the scenes movement to create a One World Government. I must admit it DID sound like something from a bad science fiction novel -- but no longer. We now KNOW such a movement does exist and has existed for rather a long time and it is gaining ground – at least it was gaining ground until Climategate broke on the world a few days ago.
As soon as I learned of Climategate, I contact a few friends who share my concern about this hoax and we all agreed that the only way we would be able to combat their efforts to cover-up Climategate would be to hit back—HARD-- and often -- drawing the public’s attention to their hoax and to the e-mails, which were either hacked or released, possibly by a whistle blower with a guilty conscious. Those e-mails prove the hoax. It is there for the entire world to see.
As free men we have a responsibility to our fellow Americans, indeed, to all the peoples of the earth to do all that is within our power to see that the TRUTH is exposed and that light is shed directly onto the HOAX that is Manmade Global Warming.
My friend, and fellow blogger, Alan Caruba, I feel sure, is of the same mind. He has written an article, in fact, MANY articles, decrying the efforts of those perpetrators of the Global Warming Hoax. I want to share the article below with you.
J. D. Longstreet
Let the Great Global Warming Cover-Up Begin!
Now that some enterprising and possibly conscience-stricken soul has served up the emails and other data of the Climate Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, revealing the deliberate efforts to hide the corrupted research that justifies the “global warming” fraud, all the various journalists and alleged climate scientists who have been a party to it are trying desperately to cover up or minimize the scandal.
The truth is, those closely allied with the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have been suppressing the real science, substituting their own corrupted data, and trying to avoid the process of “peer review” by which other scientists, the real ones, can test the data for accuracy and validity.
In England, its Freedom of Information Act, similar to that in the U.S., had been used to demand the data supporting the global warming theory which, at one point, Phil Jones, the CRU director, claimed had been “lost.” Reportedly, Jones has attracted more than $22 million in grants to the CRU for climate research!
You can be sure, however, that the global warming journalists whose careers have been based on furthering the fraud will continue to emphasize the “hacking” theory to suggest this “stolen” data lacks merit and those using it, the so-called “skeptics” and “deniers” are still not to be trusted.
Estimates of the amount of money the U.S. has spent on all manner of “research” and related programs peg the figure at $50 billion or more. That’s a lot of money for something that was NOT happening and in 1998 the Earth entered a natural cooling cycle; one in which we’re likely be for two decades more or longer.
As for President Obama, he should just pick up his Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, give another florid speech, get on Air Force One, and come home.
Alan Caruba
Friday, August 21, 2009
The September 12th March on Washington

On Saturday, September 12th, 2009, thousands of grassroots patriotic Americans will march on Washington, D.C. for the largest "tea party" in history -- the 09.12.09 March on Washington.
What’s happening in America? Well, it looks to this scribe as if Americans are fed-up with the worse government we have had in the history of this nation and they’re going to Washington to tell them so!
The folks over at www.gather.com/ say the following: “The politicians in Washington, D.C. take our hard-earned money with taxes and inflation. Then they bail out their buddies in the banks with $700 Billion of our money. Then they bail out their buddies in the auto industry... before taking over the biggest ones. Then they pass a so-called "stimulus bill" that is nothing more than a HUGE piece of pork. Then they try to pass the largest tax increase in history with their fake-environmental "cap and tax" bill.
Let’s take a look at a press release from FreedomWorks:
“WASHINGTON - (Business Wire) Over the last six months the national debt skyrocketed by nearly $3 trillion. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, our national debt will more than double by 2019. Americans will have to pay for this stratospheric spending spree first by begging foreign nations to buy our bonds, and later through higher taxes and inflation.
When newly elected President Obama and his allies in Congress passed the $780 billion debt stimulus plan in February 2009, activists took to the streets.
From autos to banking, the government is crowding out the private sector of our economy. Where Bush bailed out the private sector, Obama is making hostile government takeovers. Ignoring our multi trillion-dollar deficit, Washington is considering a massive new energy tax and a takeover of health care.
The event will kick-off on September 10th and 11th with various events throughout Washington including grassroots leadership training and Capitol Hill visits. The three-day event culminates on September 12th as taxpayers march on the Capitol building.
For more information, including media inquiries, registration, contacting event coordinators, and the schedule of events, please visit our event website at http://www.912dc.org/.”
Sounds as if these folks are determined to be heard - and to get their point across by taking their protest directly to the nation’s front yard. It is about time! When Moses won’t come to the mountain, then the mountain must go to Moses!
Now the fun begins! By the “fun” I mean watching the Mainstream Media trying their very best to ignore this building crescendo of citizen protest. Oh, make no mistake about it. The MsM will make every effort to ignore or “play down” this March on Washington. For if people turn up in vast numbers it will make the media look extremely bad!
I have only a couple, or three, questions: Whose got the tar? And whose got the feathers? And, oh yeah, the rails! Whose got the rails? Huh?
********************
Friday, June 12, 2009
Dear President Obama
Dear President Obama:Lou Pritchet is a former vice president of Procter & Gamble whose career at that company spanned 36 years before his retirement in 1989, and he is the author of the 1995 business book, Stop Paddling & Start Rocking the Boat.
You are the thirteenth President under whom I have lived and unlike any of the others, you truly scare me.
You scare me because after months of exposure, I know nothing about you.
You scare me because I do not know how you paid for your expensive Ivy League education and your upscale lifestyle and housing with no visible signs of support.
You scare me because you did not spend the formative years of youth growing up in America and culturally you are not an American.
You scare me because you have never run a company or met a payroll.
You scare me because you have never had military experience, thus don't understand it at its core.
You scare me because you lack humility and 'class', always blaming others.
You scare me because for over half your life you have aligned yourself with radical extremists who hate America and you refuse to publicly denounce these radicals who wish to see America fail.
You scare me because you are a cheerleader for the 'blame America' crowd and deliver this message abroad.
You scare me because you want to change America to a European style country where the government sector dominates instead of the private sector.
You scare me because you want to replace our health care system with a government controlled one.
You scare me because you prefer 'wind mills' to responsibly capitalizing on our own vast oil, coal and shale reserves.
You scare me because you want to kill the American capitalist goose that lays the golden egg which provides the highest standard of living in the world.
You scare me because you have begun to use 'extortion' tactics against certain banks and corporations.
You scare me because your own political party shrinks from challenging you on your wild and irresponsible spending proposals.
You scare me because you will not openly listen to or even consider opposing points of view from intelligent people.
You scare me because you falsely believe that you are both omnipotent and omniscient.
You scare me because the media gives you a free pass on everything you do.
You scare me because you demonize and want to silence the Limbaughs, Hannitys, O'Relllys and Becks who offer opposing, conservative points of view.
You scare me because you prefer controlling over governing.
Finally, you scare me because if you serve a second term I will probably not feel safe in writing a similar letter in 8 years.
Lou Pritchett
Mr. Pritchett confirmed that he was indeed the author of the much-circulated "open letter." “I did write the 'you scare me' letter. I sent it to the NY Times but they never acknowledged or published it. However, it hit the internet and according to the ‘experts’ has had over 500,000 hits.
Friday, April 03, 2009
Transnationalism: What it Means for America
Barack Obama Bows to Transnationalism
Transnationalism = Globalization (see photo above)
I've heard word "transnationalism" used on television several times this week, and it reminded me that Obama's legislation, The Global Poverty Act, Senate Bill 2433, should be brought up for a vote, probably in the dead of night, before long.
The key to making transnationalism the rule of the world, rather than a choice by a Nation, is a document known as the U.N. Millenium Development Goal (read text here), known as the MDG. Senate Bill 2433 ties our President, whomever he may be, and surprise, surprise, "he" is Barack Obama, to accomplishing the Millennium Goal. Obama wrote this Bill while a Senator. Now he will implement this Bill with the U.N. - something that President Bush would have never considered.
In short, the U.N. defines transnationalism as a type of globalization that is, this minute, turning the world into a "global village." That "global village" will give back control of "peace, equity, social justice, democracy and human rights," to the people. The U.N.'s vision of globalization is one that makes all industry, throughout the world "work for the benefit of everyone to eradicate poverty and hunger globally..."
The U.N. MDG says this:
This can happen only if global corporations, international financial and trade institutions and Governments are subject to effective democratic control by the people..."You get the picture. The U.N. wants world-wide socialism - no surprise there.
I urge everyone to keep a close watch on The Global Poverty Act, s.2433. It will rear it's ugly head sometime soon, and it's sponsors will attempt to get this innocuous-seeming Bill through without a lot of noise. Here's some information on how fossil fuels, currency, and land are to be taxed throught the MDG, as well as plans for globalized militaries.
Frank Gaffney, Jr. has a column this week on transnationalism. It's something we should all familiarize ourselves with because it is galloping at us at a very high speed. Here is Mr. Gaffney's article. Pay close attention to what is happening to former Bush U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and others:
Looming specter of transnationalism
U.S. needs a State Department defender of its sovereign rights
by Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.
Washington Times
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
COMMENTARY:
What is wrong with this picture? We learned this weekend that a Spanish judge, Baltasar Garzon, is preparing to prosecute six Americans who worked as senior legal and policy advisers to former President George W. Bush - including former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith. The purported crime? The opinions they provided Mr. Bush supported the use of torture against enemy combatants.
Most Americans would find this assertion of what has come to be called “transnational law” to be troubling on several grounds. Its application is an affront to due process and the rule of law in this country. It would criminalize internal U.S. policymaking deliberations, with profound implications for U.S. sovereignty. If allowed to run its course, this prosecution would have a profoundly chilling effect on the willingness of subordinates to provide a president with advice or perhaps even to serve in government.
One would hope President Obama would recognize that this use of legal mechanisms as a form of warfare against the United States - increasingly known as “lawfare” - holds serious dangers not just for the country and those who ran it for the past eight years, but for his administration as well. That would appear not to be the case, however, in light of his choice of Harold Koh to be the State Department's top lawyer.
In fact, as dean of Yale's law school, Mr. Koh has been an unalloyed enthusiast for transnational law. For example, in a 2006 article in the Penn State Law Review, he extolled the “transnationalist faction” on the Supreme Court and the wisdom shown by four, and sometimes five, of its justices in rejecting the impulses of what he disdainfully calls “the nationalist faction”:
“Generally speaking the transnationalists tend to emphasize the interdependence between the United States and the rest of the world, while the nationalists tend instead to focus more on preserving American autonomyThe transnationalists believe in and promote the blending of international and domestic law, while nationalists continue to maintain a rigid separation of domestic from foreign law. The transnationalists view domestic courts as having a critical role to play in domesticating international law into U.S. law, while nationalists argue instead that only the political branches can internalize international law.
“The transnationalists believe that U.S. courts can and should use their interpretive powers to promote the development of a global legal system, while the nationalists tend to claim that U.S. courts should limit their attention to the development of a national system. Finally, the transnationalists urge that the power of the executive branch should be constrained by judicial review and the concept of international comity, while the nationalists tend to believe that federal courts should give extraordinarily broad deference to executive power in foreign affairs.”
How many Americans are aware that some, let alone an actual majority, of the Supreme Court's justices think this country should be ruled by something other than the Constitution of the United States, laws made pursuant thereto and treaties clearly consistent with it? Assuredly, few of us know such an assault on our sovereignty is afoot; in all likelihood, fewer still would support it.
The same likely would apply to Mr. Koh's embrace of myriad other controversial transnationalist initiatives. He favors U.S. submission to the International Criminal Court, enabling that tribunal to have the right tomorrow to take up the sort of foreign prosecutions of Americans contemplated by Spain's Judge Garzon today.
Mr. Koh goes even further than Sen. John Kerry, who argued that American uses of force must meet what he euphemistically called a “global test.” Mr. Koh says the United States must obtain pre-authorization by the U.N. Security Council. In keeping with this view, he condemned the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which lacked such a mandate, as “illegal.”
The State Department legal adviser-designate has also actively opposed virtually every instrument the previous administration deemed necessary to wage and win the war against terror-wielding adversaries. Mr. Koh insisted that Guantanamo Bay be closed, coercive interrogation techniques be halted and trials in civilian U.S. courts be afforded to captured enemy combatants. To be sure, these positions largely track with those of Mr. Obama, although the latter has left himself some latitude in their implementation. Mr. Koh's critique of the government's terrorist surveillance, though, is even more extreme than that of Mr. Obama, who as a senator voted to allow the program to continue.
It is absolutely predictable that the United States will find itself under ever greater assault in the form of lawfare as notions of the supremacy of transnational law take hold among elites, both here (notably in the Supreme Court) and abroad. Mr. Obama can spare himself and the country considerable grief when he meets this week in Europe and Turkey with some of the leading practitioners of lawfare by repudiating Judge Garzon's extraterritorial overreach, rejecting the application of transnational law more generally and selecting a State Department legal adviser who is an avowed nationalist, not a committed transnationalist”
Frank J. Gaffney Jr. is president of the Center for Security Policy and a columnist for The Washington Times.
Barack Obama Bows to Transnationalism
Transnationalism = Globalization (see photo above)
I've heard word "transnationalism" used on television several times this week, and it reminded me that Obama's legislation, The Global Poverty Act, Senate Bill 2433, should be brought up for a vote, probably in the dead of night, before long.
The key to making transnationalism the rule of the world, rather than a choice by a Nation, is a document known as the U.N. Millenium Development Goal (read text here), known as the MDG. Senate Bill 2433 ties our President, whomever he may be, and surprise, surprise, "he" is Barack Obama, to accomplishing the Millennium Goal. Obama wrote this Bill while a Senator. Now he will implement this Bill with the U.N. - something that President Bush would have never considered.
In short, the U.N. defines transnationalism as a type of globalization that is, this minute, turning the world into a "global village." That "global village" will give back control of "peace, equity, social justice, democracy and human rights," to the people. The U.N.'s vision of globalization is one that makes all industry, throughout the world "work for the benefit of everyone to eradicate poverty and hunger globally..."
The U.N. MDG says this:
This can happen only if global corporations, international financial and trade institutions and Governments are subject to effective democratic control by the people..."You get the picture. The U.N. wants world-wide socialism - no surprise there.
I urge everyone to keep a close watch on The Global Poverty Act, s.2433. It will rear it's ugly head sometime soon, and it's sponsors will attempt to get this innocuous-seeming Bill through without a lot of noise. Here's some information on how fossil fuels, currency, and land are to be taxed throught the MDG, as well as plans for globalized militaries.
Frank Gaffney, Jr. has a column this week on transnationalism. It's something we should all familiarize ourselves with because it is galloping at us at a very high speed. Here is Mr. Gaffney's article. Pay close attention to what is happening to former Bush U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and others:
Looming specter of transnationalism
U.S. needs a State Department defender of its sovereign rights
by Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.
Washington Times
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
COMMENTARY:
What is wrong with this picture? We learned this weekend that a Spanish judge, Baltasar Garzon, is preparing to prosecute six Americans who worked as senior legal and policy advisers to former President George W. Bush - including former Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith. The purported crime? The opinions they provided Mr. Bush supported the use of torture against enemy combatants.
Most Americans would find this assertion of what has come to be called “transnational law” to be troubling on several grounds. Its application is an affront to due process and the rule of law in this country. It would criminalize internal U.S. policymaking deliberations, with profound implications for U.S. sovereignty. If allowed to run its course, this prosecution would have a profoundly chilling effect on the willingness of subordinates to provide a president with advice or perhaps even to serve in government.
One would hope President Obama would recognize that this use of legal mechanisms as a form of warfare against the United States - increasingly known as “lawfare” - holds serious dangers not just for the country and those who ran it for the past eight years, but for his administration as well. That would appear not to be the case, however, in light of his choice of Harold Koh to be the State Department's top lawyer.
In fact, as dean of Yale's law school, Mr. Koh has been an unalloyed enthusiast for transnational law. For example, in a 2006 article in the Penn State Law Review, he extolled the “transnationalist faction” on the Supreme Court and the wisdom shown by four, and sometimes five, of its justices in rejecting the impulses of what he disdainfully calls “the nationalist faction”:
“Generally speaking the transnationalists tend to emphasize the interdependence between the United States and the rest of the world, while the nationalists tend instead to focus more on preserving American autonomyThe transnationalists believe in and promote the blending of international and domestic law, while nationalists continue to maintain a rigid separation of domestic from foreign law. The transnationalists view domestic courts as having a critical role to play in domesticating international law into U.S. law, while nationalists argue instead that only the political branches can internalize international law.
“The transnationalists believe that U.S. courts can and should use their interpretive powers to promote the development of a global legal system, while the nationalists tend to claim that U.S. courts should limit their attention to the development of a national system. Finally, the transnationalists urge that the power of the executive branch should be constrained by judicial review and the concept of international comity, while the nationalists tend to believe that federal courts should give extraordinarily broad deference to executive power in foreign affairs.”
How many Americans are aware that some, let alone an actual majority, of the Supreme Court's justices think this country should be ruled by something other than the Constitution of the United States, laws made pursuant thereto and treaties clearly consistent with it? Assuredly, few of us know such an assault on our sovereignty is afoot; in all likelihood, fewer still would support it.
The same likely would apply to Mr. Koh's embrace of myriad other controversial transnationalist initiatives. He favors U.S. submission to the International Criminal Court, enabling that tribunal to have the right tomorrow to take up the sort of foreign prosecutions of Americans contemplated by Spain's Judge Garzon today.
Mr. Koh goes even further than Sen. John Kerry, who argued that American uses of force must meet what he euphemistically called a “global test.” Mr. Koh says the United States must obtain pre-authorization by the U.N. Security Council. In keeping with this view, he condemned the U.S. invasion of Iraq, which lacked such a mandate, as “illegal.”
The State Department legal adviser-designate has also actively opposed virtually every instrument the previous administration deemed necessary to wage and win the war against terror-wielding adversaries. Mr. Koh insisted that Guantanamo Bay be closed, coercive interrogation techniques be halted and trials in civilian U.S. courts be afforded to captured enemy combatants. To be sure, these positions largely track with those of Mr. Obama, although the latter has left himself some latitude in their implementation. Mr. Koh's critique of the government's terrorist surveillance, though, is even more extreme than that of Mr. Obama, who as a senator voted to allow the program to continue.
It is absolutely predictable that the United States will find itself under ever greater assault in the form of lawfare as notions of the supremacy of transnational law take hold among elites, both here (notably in the Supreme Court) and abroad. Mr. Obama can spare himself and the country considerable grief when he meets this week in Europe and Turkey with some of the leading practitioners of lawfare by repudiating Judge Garzon's extraterritorial overreach, rejecting the application of transnational law more generally and selecting a State Department legal adviser who is an avowed nationalist, not a committed transnationalist”
Frank J. Gaffney Jr. is president of the Center for Security Policy and a columnist for The Washington Times.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Why dont' they just shut up?
Every day President Obama and his staff make announcements on the dire straights of the economy. They’ve been doing it for months, years even. The more they talk, the worse things get. Wouldn’t it be nice if they would all shut up, say for two weeks, just to see what happens?
JR Dunn has an interesting article up at American Thinker about the oddness of the first week of the Obama presidency and the even odder reaction from his leftist supporters. You’d think they would be doing cartwheels, The One won! Why aren’t they dancing in the streets?
Dunn points out the string of missteps and mishaps since the inauguration, ending with the stock market dive.
It’s difficult to see, lacking an easy supply of fairy dust, how Obama could have avoided this. But it does underline something that has been overlooked throughout the current slump: the fallacy of the Economic Man argument. Human
beings are not economic robots mindlessly following ironclad laws. They are, in Isaiah Berlin’s acute formulation, “Kettles that watch themselves come to a boil”. Most of the problems of today’s economy aren’t economic at all, but functions of mass psychology. We’d be far better off if people like Bernanke,
Greenspan, and Obama himself weren’t continually quoted about how bad things are and how much worse they’ll get, if reporters who insist on using the verb “deteriorate” were treated the same as the Iraqi shoe guy, and if the president’s entire economic staff were given copies of Canetti’s Crowds and Power and Mackay’s Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Read full article.
Here’s the thing: they can’t stop talking down the economy because they need economic distress. That’s the only way they’ll be able to push through their radical agenda. Barack Obama won the election because of the economy, with a lot of help from the media who made him appear to be a centrist. But he and Congressional democrats owe the lefty nut-roots big time, and the left expects payback.
A tanking economy is perfect cover for enacting everything from the green agenda to national health care, especially while the media’s still on their side. Once they’ve successfully socialized what remains of the American economy there’s no doubt they’ll start singing a more cheerful tune.
Update: Thank God Robert Gibbs waited until just before the closing bell on Wall Street before his press conference today. Talk about doom and gloom. The Dow dropped something like 20 points after he opened his mouth. Had he appeared any earlier the slight gains of the day surely would have been completely wiped out.