So what we have here…:

ACORN employees caught on video apparently advising a couple posing as a prostitute and her boyfriend to lie about her profession and launder her earnings did not commit a crime, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office said Monday.

The office began its investigation Sept. 15, the day after the video was released online by the conservative activists who posed as an outlaw couple seeking help buying a house. It was but one in a series of such videos filmed at ACORN offices around the country that sparked a national scandal and helped drive the organization to near ruin.

…is the admission that there is no law against telling people how to set up a brothel in Brooklyn. Which, to be fair, is probably also the (lack of) law in your county, too (Rent a building, get a no-interest loan from a city community development fund, get some hookers).

Will the left portray it as “ACORN did nothing wrong?”

“We are gratified that the district attorney, after a thorough investigation, found no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by ACORN,” said a statement by Jean Sassine, a spokeswoman for the organization that has replaced ACORN’s Brooklyn operation.

Well, not there, anyway.

But give it time.

UPDATE:  But was the Brooklyn DA in the bag for ACORN?

…when I pee.

Authorities believe Wash. man electrocuted by urinating on downed power line after car crash

It’s been made clear to me that I need to get off the fence with the Gubernatorial race.  Now is no time to be silent – and so I will not be silenced.

I endorse John Marty for the DFL nomination for Governor.  He is the only candidate who doesn’t completely profane the notion of the “progressivism” the DFL represents.

So I urge all you DFLers to get out there and support Marty for Governor.

Please.

Or Mark Dayton, if Marty’s dropped out by the time you read this…

Right after the inauguration last year, I was guesting on Marty Owings’ internet talk show Radio Free Nation (which still appears on Saturday nights).  The show was pretty diverse; you had a center-lefty (Marty) and a group of far, far, far lefties.  And me.

Anyway – I made a fearless prediction for them.  Barack Obama would not get us out of Iraq; he would not resolve the Afghan situation; he would not close Guantanamo or end rendition; and he would not change  Bush-Administration policies like the Patriot Act.

Was I right?

Well, duh; it doesn’t take any more of a rocket surgeon today to figure out that Obama is an emptier suit on foreign policy and defense than on most topics than it did a year ago.

The funny part?  He tried to do it on the sly:

With virtually zero debate – or media attention – President Barack Obama has signed a one-year extension for what many considered the most crucial and controversial aspects of the USA PATRIOT Act. The provisions, set to expire Sunday without the signature of Obama, include extensions to allow:

-1) “roving” wiretaps, permitting surveillance on multiple phones and e-mail addresses.

-2) court-approved seizures of records and property in anti-terrorism operations.

-3) surveillance on “lone-wolf” foreign nationals, who may not be part of a recognized terrorist group.

Originally set to expire in December, a two-month extension was passed by Congress late last year.

Simple fact:  Dick Cheney is Barack Obama’s foremost counterterror strategist.

Did you see this?

“Hiding spending does not reduce spending”

…it’s everywhere, but you have to see Ryan’s calm but complete takedown of the President and his policies regarding health care reform.

Is Obama running out of gas?

Donald Sensing says maybe.

[Obamacare] didn’t pass then and hasn’t passed yet, and last November Joel Kotkin, executive editor of NewGeography.com and a distinguished presidential fellow in urban futures at Chapman University, concluded the same thing:

A good friend of mine, a Democratic mayor here in California, describes the Obama administration as “Moveon.org run by the Chicago machine.” This combination may have been good enough to beat John McCain in 2008, but it is proving a poor way to run a country or build a strong, effective political majority. And while the president’s charismatic talent – and the lack of such among his opposition – may keep him in office, it will be largely as a kind of permanent lame duck unable to make any of the transformative changes he promised as a candidate.

Now today comes the Associated Press with “Outlook no brighter for Obama’s new health plan:”

WASHINGTON – Starting over on health care, President Barack Obama knows his chances aren’t looking much more promising. A year after he called for a far-reaching overhaul, Obama unveiled his most detailed plan yet on Monday. Realistically, he’s just hoping to win a big enough slice to silence the talk of a failing presidency.

When the left-leaning AP is saying “trouble”, there’s trouble.  And perception is reality, especially among our not-that-bright political class:

This is not far from becoming a meme, and in Washington politics memes take on a life of their own, creating reality as much as reflecting it.

It’s not a bad thing – in principle.  A gridlocked government is a government that can’t screw up the economy.

Conservatives and Republicans have observed – sometimes jokingly, often not – that Barack Obama shows every sign of becoming the next Jimmy Carter.

What would it take to complete the impression?

Why, stagflation, of course; the unholy union of price inflation (due to rampant spending and the crushing constriction of credit due to out-of-control federal deficits) and high unempoyment.

Is it baaaaack?:

The number of U.S. workers filing new applications for unemployment insurance unexpectedly surged last week, while producer prices increased sharply in January, raising potential hurdles for the economic recovery.

Unemployment up.  Economy stagnant.  Inflation ratcheting up.  Iran throwing its weight around.

I feel like I’m 16 again.

Again – Republicans prefer to win this nation back at the polls.

But Senator Lautenberg (D-NJ) is giving the Tics a scare:

A bleeding ulcer is behind the hospitalization of longtime New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg, an aide said Tuesday.

Chief of staff Dan Katz said that no discharge date is set, but that he expects the 86-year-old Democrat to be released soon.

The senator was taken to a hospital Monday after becoming lightheaded and falling at his Cliffside Park home. He later underwent a successful endoscopy procedure, spokesman Caley Gray said.

Lautenberg was expected “to make a full recovery and will be back to work soon,” Gray said.

I send my best wishes for Senator Lautenberg’s health.

And so, as it happens, do the Tics:

Any health decline for the Senate’s second-oldest member would be a serious concern for the party, because Republicans won control of the governor’s office in November. If Lautenberg were unable to finish his term, Gov. Chris Christie would appoint an interim successor. That could give a Republican candidate the added advantage of incumbency at a time the GOP already enjoys a favorable political environment.

Naturally, Jersey Democrats – whom mobsters shun socially as being “not ethical enough” – have been trying to make sure the rule of law comes in a close second to “the rule of the Democratic Party”:

New Jersey Democrats tried, but failed, to advance legislation to take the interim appointment power away from Christie. The legislation was introduced during the lame duck session with Lautenberg in mind.

And there are rumors – albeit contested ones – that Barbara Mikulski may yet announce a retirement.

Just saying.

Sales of “Dubya” memorabilia are spiking…:

Demand for the items spiked after a billboard featuring the ex-commander in chief appeared alongside a rural Minnesota highway last week, stirring up buzz.

CafePress spokeswoman Jenna Martin said sales of Bush-related products virtually disappeared after Obama replaced him.

But last week, she said, 10 of the firm’s top-selling 100 designs were “Miss Me Yet?” items, moving to the tune of up to 500 orders a day.

…as sales of Obama items (not to mention Obama-themed stores and Obama radio stations) crater:

“There were no Obama-themed designs on the list – Bush has stolen the political spotlight, just like Sarah Palin did the week before when she re-surfaced with crib notes written in her palm,” she said.

I’m not saying we need to imbue this factoid with any significance at all.

But if it means those wretched “Obama Tells Mothers To Go Back To School” and “Obama Backs Insurance Regulation” get pulled one of these days, I think we can all agree it’s for the greater good.

…it looks like we’re gonna need some more Democrat senators.

I started out my “adult” life, at least to about halfway through college, as a liberal.

But starting in high school, I had doubts; the Dems were a disaster on national security; the economy was falling apart; I started to have doubts that “giving everything to everyone” was anything more than a good campaign promise to people who didn’t think all that hard in the first place.

Those doubts culminated in looking furtively about the polling station in November of 1984 and pulling the lever for Ronald Reagan.  And then lying to my parents about it.  For the time being, anyway; I obviously stayed conservative; within two years, I was hosting a conservative talk show in the Twin Cities.

So here’s a question: was my political evolution, which was a  considered result of a whole lot of reading and thinking and discussion, a sign of growing up and finding myself when it came to my political worldview?

Or a sign that I was just incoherent?

The latter, claims Jacob Weisberg in a Newsweek article called “Why the Public Is to Blame for the Political Mess”

In trying to explain our political paralysis, analysts cite President Obama’s tactical missteps, the obstinacy of congressional Republicans, rising partisanship in Washington, and the Senate filibuster, which has devolved into a super-majority threshold for important legislation. These are large factors to be sure, but that list neglects what may be the biggest culprit of all: the childishness, ignorance, and growing incoherence of the public at large.

That’s a fairly big thought, there.  We’ll come back to that.

Anybody who says you can’t have it both ways hasn’t been spending much time reading opinion polls lately. One year ago, 59 percent of the American public liked the economic stimulus plan, according to Gallup. A few months later, with the economy still deeply mired in recession, a majority of the same size said Obama was spending too much money on it. There’s nothing wrong with changing your mind, of course, but polls reflect something more troubling: a country that simultaneously demands and rejects action on unemployment, deficits, health care, and other problems.

They neglect one other things; polls don’t exist in a vacuum.

A year ago, “the public” was wracked with Bush fatigue.  With the full connivance of a media that was completely in the bag for Barack Obama (painting him as a centrist, for crying out loud), they had a brief fling with radical liberalism.  Then they saw the price tag, and the rot that would set in if Obama’s agenda passed, and changed their minds.

They may be demanding action – but not the action that Reid, Pelosi and Obama want to bring them.

Weisberg is half right. The public had a moment of immature incoherence.  It lasted through all of 2008.

We’ll see if people grow up by 2012.

I’m willing to go back and forth with people who favor the so-called “high-tax, high service” model of government.

“Mighty big of ya, Berg!”

Well, no – that’s how democracy works; we each go out and plug for our various positions, and at the end of the day some sort of compromise gets reached.  One of the ways we plug for our positions it to nominate, endorse and vote for candidates that reflect our positions; the more of them we get into office, the more amenable the final compromise will be to “we”. 

Now, the pr0-tax, pro-“service” crowd has two conceits that not only drive me nuts, but really make rational debate about taxes, spending and “services” impossible.

• The “Happy to Pay for a Better Minnesota” meme.  It was a sign that started popping up around Minnesota back about the time Governor Pawlenty started cutting Local Government Aid to balance the budget (when the legislature couldn’t do it).  I won’t say “the meme is dumb” – but it is misleading.   It has little to do with paying for a “better Minnesota”; it’s all about making sure government never, never does without.
• The “If you oppose taxes, you support firing cops and letting the streets go unplowed” meme.  It frames the argument so that by opposing any government spending – $50,000 drinking fountains, overlapping “Human Rights” departments, green roofs, yellow bikes, city trash collection – you oppose all government spending.  It’s a fairly childish manipulation.

The issue, by the way – for everyone on the right except perhaps the most anarchic of libertarians – is not “all government or no government”.  It’s “make sure that people come before government when doling out fiscal security”. 

Which bothers the tax and spend crowd, for whom all well-being seems to come through gobvernment. 

Dave Mindemann at mnpACT seems to have gotten his mellow harshed by a GOP flyer questioning some spending proposals:

There is a flyer floating around Eagan this past week. It is prepared and paid for by the Republican Party of Minnesota as an “independent expenditure”. The one I got hold of is directed at Senator Jim Carlson….it says;

DEBT

IT FEELS LIKE A TEN TON

GORILLA ON YOUR BACK

Senator Jim Carlson is wasting your tax dollars on these items in the DEBT BILL?

–$2 million for the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden

–$11 million for the Como Zoo Gorilla & Polar Bear Upgrade

–$15 million for the St. Paul Ordway

–$22 million for the Minneapolis Planetarium

Call Senator Carlson today….It’s time to end Wasteful Government Spending!

 Now, we know that’ll act on Dave Mindemann – who, I think it’s fair to say, favors a “high tax, high spendign, high “Service”” model of goverhment – like a red cape in front of a bull. 

So, this is the Republican definition of waste? We apparently shouldn’t keep up the cultural and affordable family venue part of our economy? If we are not going to maintain the Como Zoo, then scrap it. I want the Republicans to go on the record. They want Como Zoo to be torn up and plowed under. Give the animals away. Sell the land and tell everyone that this free family venue is no longer worth the bother.

Someone get the lad some smelling salts and tell him to get a grip.

I live in Saint Paul. I’ve taken my kids to Como many, many times.  It’s one of Saint Paul’s little hidden treasures – and it’s a freebie!  It’s a freebie because of me, the Saint Paul taxpayer!  The walkways, the veterinarian, the food they throw to the seals – I pay for it!  So I feel not the slightest compunction about taking my kids there; I did my part.  I agree to do my part of it, every time I pay my Saint Paul property tax bill, among many many others (including state and federal taxes). 

But the appropriation in question isnt’ one to run the whole zoo; it’s to remodel the Gorilla and Polar Bear exhibits.  Not “run the zoo or tear it down”. 

To call the issue “remodel the gorilla/polar bear facilities or tear down the zoo” is inflammatory, obtuse and, worse, dishonest.

And at a time when Minnesota and Saint Paul are hurting (largely due to the profligacy of the DFL-controlled legislature), would it kill the polar bears and gorillas to wait a year or two, in their utterly adequate current facilities?

Ditto with the other line items in the flyer.  The Sculpture Garden and the Ordway are all built, paid for, and running just fine with what they have.   They could use some upgrades, sure – what couldn’t?  The Planetarium is a little different – it would replace a perfectly good planetarium torn down when Minneapolis built its boondoggle of a Central Library.  But do they each need millions from the public coffers in mid-recession?

Make the Ordway take care of itself. Let those ticket prices skyrocket out of reach for the average Minnesotan.

One wonders if Mindemann has tried to take a family to the Ordway lately.  Ticket prices are out of reach for a helluvva lot of Minnesotans.

And as for the Minneapolis Planetarium? …Not surprising these days, but as a person very interested in astronomy, it is a shame that Minnesota can’t support an educational opportunity like this.

A “person very interested in astromomy” might also note that the Twin Cities has several other planetaria – from the U of M to Como High School 0-  that should be able to bridge the gap until it’s make economic sense, perhaps, to replace the old Minneapolis one.

And, again, the issue isn’t “appropriate the money now or do without forever“; it’s “maybe these are appropriations that can wait until we’re not in a freaking recession.

Yessir, we need to get that 10 ton gorilla out of the room all right, except it is not at Como. That gorilla is Republican hypocrisy and it resides quite visibly at the Capitol in St. Paul.

 The only primate in the room is the howler monkey that’s shrieking “give us our money or tear everything down!”.

Someone call animal control.

After bagging on executive bonuses during the campaign, President Obama has discovered that  “savvy” bankers deserve some bonus love:

President Barack Obama said he doesn’t “begrudge” the $17 million bonus awarded to JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon or the $9 million issued to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. CEO Lloyd Blankfein, noting that some athletes take home more pay.

The president, speaking in an interview, said in response to a question that while $17 million is “an extraordinary amount of money” for Main Street, “there are some baseball players who are making more than that and don’t get to the World Series either, so I’m shocked by that as well.”

“I know both those guys; they are very savvy businessmen,” Obama said in the interview yesterday in the Oval Office with Bloomberg BusinessWeek, which will appear on newsstands Friday. “I, like most of the American people, don’t begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free- market system.”

So what defines “savvy” in the world of President Obama?

Let’s just say “savvy” is less in the head and more in the pants.  Wallet pocket, I mean:

Well, Dimon has given over $100k just to the DSCC. Plus individual candidate donations, most of which go to Democrats.

And Blankfein gives almost all of his donations to Democrats – $136k to $4k.

Yep.  They’re’ “savvy”, all right.

Remember Berg’s Seventh Law?  “When a Liberal issues a group defamation or assault on conservatives’ ethics, character or respect for liberty, they are projecting.”

Or is the word I’m looking for “transference”?

At any rate – remember when the left insisted the Tea Parties were “astroturf”, or fake grass-roots? 

Oh, what do you think?

A Web site popped up in January dedicated to preventing the tea party’s “radical” and “dangerous” ideas from “gaining legislative traction,” targeting GOP candidates in Illinois for the firing squad.

“This movement is a fad,” proclaims TheTeaPartyIsOver.org, which was established by the American Public Policy Center (APPC), a D.C.-based campaign shop that few people have ever heard of.

But a close look reveals the APPC’s place in a complex network of money flowing from the mountainous coffers of the country’s biggest labor unions into political slush funds for Democratic activists.

Here’s how it works: What appears like a local groundswell is in fact the creation of two men — Craig Varoga and George Rakis, Democratic Party strategists who have set up a number of so-called 527 groups, the non-profit election organizations that hammer on contentious issues (think Swift Boats, for example).

Lefties would insist that the Tea Parties themselves would be the same.  Notwithstanding the fact that other than Dick Armey’s think tank’s high-level message-mongering and a few approving pieces on Fox news, nobody’s come up with the faintest

Varoga and Rakis keep a central mailing address in Washington, pulling in soft money contributions from unions and other well-padded sources to engage in what amounts to a legal laundering system. The money — tens of millions of dollars — gets circulated around to different states by the 527s, which pay for TV ads, Internet campaigns and lobbyist salaries, all while keeping the hands of the unions clean — for the most part.

The system helps hide the true sources of funding, giving the appearance of locally bred opposition in states from Oklahoma to New Jersey, or in the case of the Tea Party Web site, in Illinois.

And this whitewash is entirely legal, say election law experts, who told FoxNews.com that this arrangement more or less the norm in Washington.

Such a shame that the Supreme Court opened poltics up to big money, huh?

….but I’m smarter than you.

Enough about about Health Care reform. What do you think about Health Insurance Reform?

Obama reminds me of the guy that says

“Enough talk about me. What do you think about me?”

There are many and several ways America has expressed it’s disapproval of reform of health care reform via an ever-expanding liberal government growth plan.

It’s been three weeks since Massachusetts voters elected Scott Brown to the Senate, in large part because of his opposition to the health care confusion Democrats have sown. It’s been even longer since Americans at tea parties and lawmakers’ town hall meetings plainly told Washington they wanted no part of the health care elixir that Congress was peddling.

Still, our political elites, impressed by their own intellects, insist that the public will get the health care system they want the public to have, not the health care the public wants.

This was confirmed by the president when he told Couric he would not throw out the proposals that are stalled in Congress and start over, even though public opinion (see chart) strongly indicates that he should.

Everyone’s heard the message loud and clear save one man.

Unfortunately he happens to be the President of the United States.

“Just in case there’s any confusion out there, let me be clear,” Obama said. “I am not going to walk away from health insurance reform.”

You see what he did there? He smuggled the word insurance into his monologue. Make no mistake, a man of words, and only words, chooses them wisely. Also of note, Jimmy II also threw in his signature and so very very tired “let me be clear,” mantra; a sure sign he intends on being anything but.

America cares about jobs and the economy at the moment and for the time being the majority are satisfied with their health care and are dissatisfied with the size of their government. Obama is increasingly making himself an island on both fronts.

There was immediate skepticism from Mr. Obama’s own party that the forum would break the impasse. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D., Md.) said he had reached out to Republicans “on several occasions” last year to seek their ideas and feedback. “I was, however, disappointed that these meetings did not result in any serious follow-through to work together in a bipartisan fashion,” he said.

So, it’s the Republicans’ fault that health care reform is pushing up daisies?

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R., Ohio) said he welcomed the outreach. “Obviously, I am pleased that the White House finally seems interested in a real, bipartisan conversation on health care,” he said in a statement. “The problem with the Democrats’ health-care bills is not that the American people don’t understand them; the American people do understand them, and they don’t like them.”

At least someone’s listening.

Tangent warning!

Riddle me this: if you could remotely control the President and somehow direct his actions to further derail his Presidency, and really light up Americans who are quickly growing angry at their government’s expansion into issues no one believes in or cares about, what might you do?

This?

Amid the growing fight over the accuracy of climate data, President Obama is seeking to have the federal government put its imprimatur [screeeeeeeeeeeeeeechhhhhhhhhh!-JR]

…that means approval; consent. I had to look it up.

on the science by calling for the creation of a new federal office to study and report on global warming.

Rep. Edward J. Markey, Massachusetts Democrat: “This service will be a vital part of our growing body of knowledge on climate change, and will be held to the highest standards of scientific integrity and transparency”

Right.

Sir, is that the Nancy Pelosi definition of transparency or the Barack Obama variant?

…oh, and re the “highest standards of scientific integrity”…is that the IPCC definition or the Al Gore version?

I thought so.

Barack, we love ya. You’re making all the right moves…you know…for the one-term-and-out deal.

Sadly, you’ll be a one-term president, and a mediocre one. At best.

I can say with absolute honesty that I would have preferred John Murtha left office standing up, after losing an election this fall.

Sadly, it’s not to be.  John Murtha passed away today after complication from gall-bladder surgery.

For all the policy stances I disagreed with, and the way he dealt with opposition (not well), one still must respect his story:

Born June 17, 1932, John Patrick Murtha delivered newspapers and worked at a gas station before graduating from Ramsay High School in Mount Pleasant.

Military service was in Murtha’s blood. He said his great-grandfather served in the Civil War, his father and three uncles in World War II, and his brothers in the Marine Corps.

He left Washington and Jefferson College in 1952 to join the Marines, where he rose through the ranks to become a drill instructor at Parris Island, S.C., and later served in the 2nd Marine Division.

Murtha moved back to Johnstown and remained with the Marine Reserves until he volunteered to go to Vietnam. He served as an intelligence officer there from 1966 to 1967 and received a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts.

He spent much of his political career as a “blue-ish dog” Democrat.  Indeed, he only became the toast of the left after coming out against the Iraq War.  In this, he was both wrong…:

Murtha’s criticism of the Iraq war intensified in 2006, when he accused Marines of murdering Iraqi civilians “in cold blood” at Haditha, Iraq, after one Marine died and two were wounded by a roadside bomb.

Critics said Murtha unfairly held the Marines responsible before an investigation was concluded and fueled enemy retaliation.

…and presciently correct…:

“This is the kind of war you have to win the hearts and minds of the people,” Murtha said. “And we’re set back every time something like this happens.”

Which, eventually, we learned.

I’m not one to let a political disagreement obscure the record of a great American.

RIP, John Murtha.

The Obama Store closes:

This time last year, the Obama Store was teeming with customers. Ideally situated in the basement of Washington’s Union Station, the store was filled with consumers eager to buy anything with Obama’s likeness while others took pictures of the life-size cut-outs of the president and first lady. Now, the Obama Store is boarded up.

How quickly things change in a year.

This follows almost exactly a year after “Obama 1260”, Washington DC’s all-liberal talk station, switched formats – to conservative talk.

Gotta hand it to the late proprietors; they certainly saw a trend:

The Obama Store was capitalism at its most brilliant rawness; find a market and exploit it quickly. The store made possible one-stop shopping for all of your tacky Obama merchandise needs. T-shirts! Hats! Calendars! Hand-warmers! Keychains! It was like something out of Spaceballs (“Obama: The Flame Thrower! The kids love this one.”). The store carried every imaginable product with the words “Obama” and “Commemorative,” except, notably, the Obama Chia Pet.

Obama got 93 percent of the vote in DC.  That may have been more than even in the Fifth District.

Okay, so I’m not going to make a habit of defending the President but…uhhh, Senator Reid, it already is.

I mean c’mon!

Read that quote.

Las Vegas is the poster child for where people shouldn’t be spending their money…by design!

A city whose mantra is “What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas^TM” isn’t aiming to be the wholesome venue where Pa Ingalls brings Ma, Half-Pint and the rest of the clan for a family vacation.

During the president’s town hall meeting in Nashua, New Hampshire, he discussed the need to curb spending during tough economic times.  “When times are tough, you tighten your belts,” the president said.

True.

“You don’t go buying a boat when you can barely pay your mortgage.

True.

You don’t blow a bunch of cash on Vegas when you’re trying to save for college.”

True.

The president’s comments come nearly a year after he criticized companies that received federal money for taking corporate junkets to Las Vegas.

Should Americans not have a problem with that?

“You can’t go take that trip to Las Vegas or go down to the Super Bowl on taxpayers’ dime,

(unless your name is Nancy Pelosi)

” he said at the time. Local business leaders say Nevada tourism suffered last year in part because companies canceled trips to Las Vegas in the wake of the president’s comments.

Or I might respectfully offer another theory…maybe…just maybe…it was because….of a recession…that occurred…oh…give and take…all of last year?!

Not to worry: I think America has figured out that there is a very low correlation between reality and whatever the President says.

Besides…

President Obama is scheduled to visit Las Vegas this month.

…to apologize and find someone to bow to.

UPDATE:

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said during a hastily called news conference that Obama is no friend to Las Vegas and would not be welcomed here if he visits.

“I’ll do everything I can to give him the boot,” Goodman said. “This president is a real slow learner.”

Fouad Ajami on the descent of Obama from near-deification to merely human:

The curtain has come down on what can best be described as a brief un-American moment in our history. That moment began in the fall of 2008, with the great financial panic, and gave rise to the Barack Obama phenomenon.

The nation’s faith in institutions and time-honored ways had cracked. In a little-known senator from Illinois millions of Americans came to see a savior who would deliver the nation out of its troubles. Gone was the empiricism in political life that had marked the American temper in politics. A charismatic leader had risen in a manner akin to the way politics plays out in distressed and Third World societies.

I unpacked that last bit – and realized that that’s the bad news.

It’s not that we, The People, elected an unqualified, inexperienced empty suit as the most powerful person in the world; we’ve done that before.  It’s not that we allowed a full-court media press to get him elected over a slate of more-qualified candidates based purely on conjured-from-whole-cloth star power.

It’s that this is how “the People” operate in festering third world hellholes; they look not merely to government, but to government run by outsized personality cults, to “save”them.

If you change the “America” references in Ajami’s post to “Argentina”, the Obama story becomes painfully similar to the Juan and Eva Peron story.

Juan was a socialist demigogue who was elected several times; after his death, his vacuous but attractive wife Eva took over, winning over Argintinean (and world) glitterati, but instituting gigantistic, prosperity-leaching socialist programs that left Argentina – which had clambered up to the lower reaches of the “First World” – sodden with debt and helpless by the time the economy tanked in the seventies.

There is nothing surprising about where Mr. Obama finds himself today. He had been made by charisma, and political magic, and has been felled by it. If his rise had been spectacular, so, too, has been his fall. The speed with which some of his devotees have turned on him—and their unwillingness to own up to what their infatuation had wrought—is nothing short of astounding. But this is the bargain Mr. Obama had made with political fortune.

“Don’t cry for him, Chicago”.

President Obama seems to have realized that capital gains aren’t a chief concern of business owners and instead is now focusing on a $5000 per capita tax-credit to business that hire new employees.

WSJ: The details of the initiative, which Mr. Obama is expected to highlight when he visits Baltimore today, include a $5,000 tax credit for every net new employee in 2010. This credit would be retroactive to the beginning of the calendar year and could be received on a quarterly basis, if the business so chooses. In addition, employers would receive a tax credit to cover Social Security payroll taxes on wage increases.

As a small business owner that is in fact looking to hire someone in February, I can finally say that the President is proposing a policy that will

1. make me think twice about my plan to bring on a contract worker vs. hiring them full time; which is to say paying the self-employment taxes and
2. make me think twice about making it a full-time permanent position now versus a later date.

Tax cuts across the board would still be a better idea and the macro issues and effects related to this proposal have yet to be debated but I for one am pleased with the President’s initiative.*

*No, someone didn’t hack into my laptop to write something positive about Barack Obama.

…and she wasn’t popularized for her intellect…if you know what I mean.

Ettinger, 28, said that even though she doesn’t have health care — “I can’t afford it” — she still thinks Obama should have waited to tackle the thorny legislation that has been blamed for the devastat ing Democratic loss of Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat.

He did create some jobs, but most of them were government jobs and that doesn’t really help the middle class. But it helps a bit,” said Ettinger.

Apparently Hooters doesn’t offer health insurance.

According to Representative Marion Berry, all we really need is more Barack Obama.

According to Barack Obama, that is:

The retiring Berry, who doesn’t say when the remarks were made, now scoffs at Obama’s 50-or-below approval rating:

Writes ADG reporter Jane Fullerton:

Berry recounted meetings with White House officials, reminiscent of some during the Clinton days, where he and others urged them not to force Blue Dogs “off into that swamp” of supporting bills that would be unpopular with voters back home.

“I’ve been doing that with this White House, and they just don’t seem to give it any credibility at all,” Berry said. “They just kept telling us how good it was going to be. The president himself, when that was brought up in one group, said, ‘Well, the big difference here and in ’94 was you’ve got me.’ We’re going to see how much difference that makes now.” [snip]

Does Obama really think he was that big an edge on Bill Clinton in the “personal charm” department?  Perhaps, but let’s remember Clinton combined “Bill Clinton” with a heck of a lot of triangulation to save his presidency in 1994.  Obama seems, if anything, to be triangulating left.

Berry seems to think so, too:

“I began to preach last January that we had already seen this movie and we didn’t want to see it again because we know how it comes out,” said Arkansas’ 1st District congressman, who worked in the Clinton administration before being elected to the House in 1996… “I just began to have flashbacks to 1993 and ’94. No one that was here in ’94, or at the day after the election felt like. It certainly wasn’t a good feeling.”

We shall see.

Obama holds forth on Constitutional Law.

Justice Alito says “not so fast…”

This is going to be an interesting year.

I only caught the last twenty minutes of Obama’s Castro-length State of the Union last night.  My impression on hearing that part – and the wrap-up analysis – was…

…well, a picture says a thousand words:

Seriously.  “The American people are rejecting statist gigantism – so I’m going to give them more statist gigantism!”

They do breed ’em cynical in Chicago, though; the conventional wisdom was that Obama took a more “populist” tone, going after banks and “Wall Street”.  In other words, he’s trying to give the masses the same ideological bread and circuses that always work in liberal cesspools like Chicago.

Are fiscal show trials going to turn back the Tea Party Tsunami?

The President’s teleprompter mentioned “jobs” twenty nine times by my count. Unfortunately for the citizens of the United States of America, where “when the Union was turned back at Bull Run and the Allies first landed at Omaha Beach” and blah blah blah, their President thinks creating a public sector job is something other than simply enlarging the government.

…and at the same time, is still hawking the now infamous “Two Million.”

Because of the steps we took, there are about two million Americans working right now who would otherwise be unemployed.

Who are these two million people?

200,000 work in construction and clean energy. 300,000 are teachers and other education workers. Tens of thousands are cops, firefighters, correctional officers, and first responders. And we are on track to add another one and a half million jobs to this total by the end of the year.

…and the other 1,410,000, sir?

All public employees, sir. With all due respect, we need jobs that “pay the bills,” sir.

The term “Clean Energy” or “Green Jobs” is a euphemism for “Government Subsidy” and “beauracracy”…and “Failure.” Sir.

The Obama administration’s call for green jobs as an economic savior initially sparked hope for economic recovery. But the federal funds have only dribbled into the sector

Among the victims: the plodding light-rail project in St. Paul; the massive layoffs at Suzlon’s wind turbine plant in Pipestone and the deep job cuts at New Flyer’s hybrid bus plant in St. Cloud, the site Vice President Joe Biden visited last year to herald the administration’s green initiatives.

…back to the teleprompter:

Now, the true engine of job creation in this country will always be America’s businesses.

…but not so much while Obama is President.

So tonight, I’m proposing that we take $30 billion of the money Wall Street banks have repaid and use it to help community banks give small businesses the credit they need to stay afloat.

More TARP? Jolly good idea, Mr. President, because the billions of TARP dollars already out there are getting lent out, right? The TARP that the banks that are lending, that are in good shape, are giving back to you with a “Thanks, but No Thanks”?

I am also proposing a new small business tax credit – one that will go to over one million small businesses who hire new workers or raise wages. While we’re at it, let’s also eliminate all capital gains taxes on small business investment; and provide a tax incentive for all businesses, large and small, to invest in new plants and equipment.

…like the health care reform you proposed? How’d that go?

Next, we can put Americans to work today building the infrastructure of tomorrow.

Read: grow government.

From the first railroads to the interstate highway system, our nation has always been built to compete. There’s no reason Europe or China should have the fastest trains

…ours will be faster because they will be empty!

or the new factories that manufacture clean energy products

…in China.

Tomorrow, I’ll visit Tampa, Florida, where workers will soon break ground on a new high-speed railroad funded by the Recovery Act.

…because if there is one thing Tampa needs, it’s a high-speed railroad.

There are projects like that all across this country that will create jobs and help our nation move goods, services, and information.

…how do you move a service? Sorry Mr. President, you were saying…

We should put more Americans to work building clean energy facilities, and give rebates to Americans who make their homes more energy efficient, which supports clean energy jobs.

…like this?

And let’s tell another one million students that when they graduate, they will be required to pay only ten percent of their income on student loans, and all of their debt will be forgiven after twenty years

Why don’t we just give them the money when they’re born like Hillary wanted to?

– and forgiven after ten years if they choose a career in public service.

…or you could tell them to skip all that and just give them the job.

From the day I took office, I have been told that addressing our larger challenges is too ambitious – that such efforts would be too contentious, that our political system is too gridlocked, and that we should just put things on hold for awhile.

For those who make these claims, I have one simple question:

How long should we wait? How long should America put its future on hold?

…apparently about three more years.

A year and a half ago, pundits speculated that Barack Obama, if elected President, would either work to move the country far to the left in pursuit of a liberal ideology and to satisfy decades of pent-up liberalism or govern from the center in the interest of furthering his personal ambitions and extending the pinnacle of his political career.

The first year of the Obama Presidency ended all speculation. Ideology trumped ambition, and it’s been a disaster for the President and for Democrats.

January 20th marked the beginning of his second year and also served as a demarcation between the pre-Brown and post-Brown era for the Obama Presidency.

This week offers peril and opportunity for the President to elucidate his New New Way Forward, if like many Democrats recently, Obama acknowledges the Coakley defeat as the comeuppance that it was.

Mr. Obama’s campaign-style speech here capped one of the most bruising weeks of his year in office. The President traveled to this swing-state manufacturing town ostensibly to deliver a speech about jobs and the economy, but instead he repeatedly veered off-script to interject pledges to battle his political foes over health care and other issues “so long as I have breath in me.”

Sadly for alert Democrats and in an inconceivable dream scenario for Republicans, instead of shifting gears from health care reform to job-creation; to align Washington with the rest of America, Obama opted this week to cement his station as an ideologue. Without regard for fairness, public sentiment or for that matter, securing a second term, the President declared war on the banking industry, sending the market into a minor (thus far) sell-off, undermining sentiment tied to economic recovery, and positioning himself within a new Democratic sub-minority, of, well, he and Nancy Pelosi. Even Barney Frank has said “Uncle.”

Save for later the discussion of the fact that his edict fails to recognize the corruption and culpability of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both being spared, and the fact that we already have procedures in place such as increasing reserves and FDIC premiums to protect the system and “punish” banks for taking on excess risk. I’ll also forego the well-worn but valid discussion of the of the fact that much of the risk-taking at issue was forced upon them by government policy and that some of the corporations and practices Obama named specifically had nothing to do with the financial crisis.

[Treasury Secretary Timothy] Geithner is concerned that the proposed limits on big banks’ trading and size could impact U.S. firms’ global competitiveness, the sources said, speaking anonymously because Geithner has not spoken publicly about his reservations.

He also has concerns that the limits do not necessarily get at the root of the problems and excesses that fueled the recent financial meltdown, the sources said.

Lawrence White, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and a former regulator, said Obama’s proposals were “a solution to the wrong problem.”

Ironically, these policies may result in the transfer of some pretty good jobs from Wall Street to Europe.

The new rules would ban the use of a bank’s own capital for hedge fund or private equity investment, or for trading unless it was directly connected to client activity.

However, some foreign banks believe they could escape the ban by switching their operations from Wall Street to London or continental Europe.

What Obama’s proclamation does represent is a presidency inexorably out of sync with America; especially the meaty middle, whose voice was heard load and clear in Massachusetts this week. A years’ experience has done little for a man who has never held a real job, owned a business, or exhibited a basic comprehension of the fundamentals of economics or a genuine acknowledgment of the gift that is free enterprise.

Mr. Obama’s display of anger with big financial institutions and insurers may not reassure voters who are dubious about his proposed solutions to the country’s economic problems.

Barack Obama has essentially been out of touch his entire, calculated, and increasingly apocryphal political career and may soon find his presidency floundering having sailed his most avowed mission to reform America’s health care system into a tsunami of taxpayer revolt.

Despite the fact that his policies have been soundly rejected and support within his own party is eroding, Obama’s political capital and popularity aren’t completely exhausted. The opportunity remains to move quickly to realign his presidency with the pressing needs of an American citizenry that haven’t yet completely lost hope in him.

most continue to like and respect the man they gathered around televisions to watch sworn in as president on a cold noon hour a year ago, and most still hold out hope for his presidency. Yet many also worry that, in his quest to mobilize government to solve the nation’s problems, he may have moved too far too fast.

If Obama’s upcoming State of the Union address focuses on restoring full employment, judicicious enhancements to the regulations that govern our financial system, and a renewed confidence in America’s ability to recover, rebuild and prosper once again, Obama’s may find his stock rising again.

“In his State of the Union, Obama has to slim down his ambitions. It should be short and simple and focus on jobs.”

“Obama has to decide whether he wants to be a transformational president, which looks optimistic at this stage, or merely an effective president,” says Bruce Josten, head of government affairs at the US Chamber of Commerce

Odds are, Obama will continue on his latest vector: vilifying banks, demonizing those who would dare seek an honest profit, penalizing employers, mushrooming the federal government and broadening an ongoing orgy of government spending under the guise of economic timulus, which is almost as dirty a word now as health care reform.

In short, Mr Obama’s nightmare January could easily slip into a nightmare February. “Unless and until the president changes the way his White House, works, things are going to continue to go badly for him,” says the head of a Democratic think-tank.

In turn, this will continue to fuel the tea party movement, mobilize the middle, neuter the left and manifest a Jimmy-Carteresque dreamscape only the most opportunistic Republicans could envision before last Tuesday night.

Only Obama’s teleprompter knows which path the President will chose.