The Age of Obama

I write to you today at the end of a crazy week both in politics and the economy. We now have President-Elect Obama who has managed to already have a huge effect on both the economy and policy both domestic and foreign. At home, he's already found a way to grow government with his new website, change.gov. There's plenty of stuff to go through there, but for the most part its a website dedicated to Obama's planned policy papers and positions as a bit of a preview before his term actually begins. One of the websites I follow, sweetness-light.com has done some digging through the site and has written some fairly revealing articles on Obama's position on Education, Amnesty and Civil Rights. I think if you take the time to read the articles and look through his site you'll be just as dispirited as I am currently. As for the economy, well hows this for a statistic, as of election day the market is down more than 7%; which just so happens to be the largest post election drop the market has taken, ever. It sure is a good thing that none of this happened right after Obama was elected so it can't have anything to do with him.. oh wait, it did.. and it does. I think we all have to remember that the markets work on a 6-9 month futures basis and apparently the markets aren't too sanguine about an Obama presidency. I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that he wants to up the corporate tax rate, (the US already has the highest corporate tax rate in the world) or the fact that he wants to impose so called "windfall" profits taxes or any of the other naive and impractical ideas that he has that has the net effect of being bad for business which ends up killing jobs.

On the international front, I'm sure everyone has heard about the goodwill coming from all around the world, but I think a few of the following stories must have just missed the news coverage, probably because they aren't important.. or something. Our old buddy Valdimir Putin seems to want to make a come back tour as President of Russia, or at least so reports Reuters. It seems that current Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will propose extending Presidential terms of office and then resign allowing Putin to return to power with the benefit of the longer term. And then of course there are new reports out today about how the EU is "worried" about Russian plans to have missiles stationed near Poland's border. This new boldness wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that a young inexperienced US President is going to be coming to office that has openly voiced that he prefers talking and negotiating over decisively using military force. As if that wasn't enough, Israel who is of course very concerned with their continued existence is warning President-Elect Obama about how to go about foreign policy in the region especially relating to Iran.

"We live in a neighbourhood in which dialogue - in a situation where you have brought sanctions and you then shift to dialogue - is liable to be interpreted as weakness,' said Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni."

I've taken a slightly different tack with my blog today, mostly because I felt it was necessary in order to demonstrate a number of points. First off, I wanted to demonstrate that my thoughts and opinions don't just come from my own limited world view. I do a lot of reading and research so that I can get up on my soap box here and foam at the mouth, while still having a reasonably good grasp of the issues at hand. As a distant secondary goal, I wanted to just release some steam because lately it seems like the entire country has gone mad. History, logic, indeed reality itself doesn't seem to be as important as the perception of "fairness," which I somewhat addressed in my previous entry. Am I happy that we have elected a black President? In a way yes, I am. Am I happy that it was THIS particular black President? Not at all. Give me a Clarence Thomas, or a Thomas Sowell any day of the week and I'd be first in the voter line for either of them. For that matter, put a Margret Thatcher on the ticket and I'd be proud to have her as my President. At some point reality is going to have to set in. Racism or bigotry has nothing to do with my dislike of Barack Obama, only his policy and political ideology affect my perception of him. When the American people wake up one day and they find they elected an empty suit, I'm just going to shake my head and ask, how could you have not noticed this sooner? Fortunately we can look back into history to see how this situation is going to resolve itself.. we had 4 years of (misery index) Carter, and as a direct result we got President Ronald Reagan who ushered in a wave of prosperity that was felt all the way until Sept. 11, 2001. I can only hope that the turn around is even half as successful as that of President Reagan, certainly it is something to look forward to, for this greatest nation on God's green Earth.

Video/Audio Clip(s) of the Entry:

Well I found the video of Congressman Jim Moran's comments that I brought to you last entry. I don't think I need to say too much about this, as I think it should be fairly self explanatory. It's easy to want a hand out.. it's much harder to stand up on your own.. I think we Americans need a refresher course on self reliance.


I thought that I'd put this video in because this is the man that I wanted to be President. Unfortunately Americans today seem to be more enamored in image rather than substance. If Fred Thompson had become the standard bearer, well.. let's not get to crazy with the "what ifs." In any event, it's a good video and well worth the time spent watching it.


Okay, so this one is a bit disconnected from the rest of my post.. but what can I say? I needed something to help with my blood pressure. Alicia Keys may not help with my heart, but I'll be damned if she doesn't have some pipes. She sings this song as well as anyone.. and it's a good thing too, because it's one of my favorites!

Random Thoughts:
If I had no more time,
No more time left to be here,
Would you cherish what we had?
Was it everything that you were looking for?
If I couldn't feel your touch,
And no longer were you with me,
I'd be wishing you were here,
To be everything that I'd be looking for,
I don't wanna forget the present is a gift,
And I don't wanna take for granted the time you may have here with me,
'Cause Lord only knows another day is not really guaranteed..

So every time you hold me,
Hold me like this is the last time..
Every time you kiss me,
Kiss me like you'll never see me again..
Every time you touch me,
Touch me like this is the last time..
Promise that you'll love me,
Love me like you'll never see me again..

Quote of the Entry: Much of the social history of the Western world over the past three decades has involved replacing what worked with what sounded good. In area after area - crime, education, housing, race relations - the situation has gotten worse after the bright new theories were put into operation. The amazing thing is that this history of failure and disaster has neither discouraged the social engineers nor discredited them.
-Thomas Sowell, Is Reality Optional?, 1993 (1930 - )