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Big government’s auto industry failures

For years I have criticized the government for its interference in the auto manufacturing business, from the ill-conceived café standards, the expediting of electric cars, the cash for clunkers program, and of course the auto bailout.  And, I have not forgotten CEO’s who became weak-kneed under big government pressure, put aside the free enterprise system and bowed to corporate welfare.

Two recent announcements appear to support my position.  On the heels of a study that labelled the Cash for Clunkers program a failure, comes a report that Cadillac can’t keep up with demand for its gas-guzzling Escalades, news that is sure to shake up environmentalists.

CFC (autodealerpeopple.com)

(Logo courtesy autodealerpeople.com)

A National Bureau of Economic Research working paper has revealed facts that the $3 billion, yes billion, two-month government Cash for Clunkers program subtracted between $2.6 and $4 billion from the auto industry.  The program offered $4,500 if people turned in their old cars for destruction and bought a new car.

You will recall that goals were to lift manufacturers during the recession by subsidizing sales, while mollifying “greenies” by putting more fuel-efficient cars on the road. The report from a group of Texas A&M economists, shows that the subsidy didn‘t really create any extra auto business since those who participated were likely to purchase a car during that period anyway, and any environmental benefits couldn’t be justified. Continue reading →

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Once a liberal, always a liberal

Young people often make the transition from Democrat to Republican as they mature.  Ronald Reagan was once a Democrat.  But in my mind, once a liberal, always a liberal.

Liberals will defend their ideology to the hilt, but they don’t like to be called “liberal,” preferring “progressive.”  In a January 2014 Gallup poll, just 23 percent admitted to be liberal.

During her 2008 presidential run Hillary Clinton said, “I prefer the word ‘progressive’ … I consider myself a proud modern American progressive.”  She claimed that over the years the definition of a liberal “has been turned up on its head and it’s been made to seem as a though it is a word that describes big government.”  Bingo!

I’d like to tell you about two “Davids” – David Brooks and David Brock, both use the word “conservative” loosely.  Very loosely.

Brooks (Josh Haner, NY Times)

New York Times columnist David Brooks is billed as a conservative columnist. (Josh Haner photo/New York Times)

David Brooks is billed as a conservative columnist at the liberal New York Times.  He has admitted being a liberal Democrat when he was young.  The New Republic, a liberal publication, published a piece on Brooks’ meeting with then Senator Barack Obama.  It was called, “The Courtship,” because it led to Brooks’ column, “Run, Barack, Run.”

“I don’t want to sound like I’m bragging, “ Brooks told New Republic writer Gabriel Sherman, “but usually when I talk to senators, while they may know a policy area better than me, they generally don’t know political philosophy better than me.  I got the sense he (Obama) knew both better than me.”

Brooks recalled a vivid memory of that encounter during the interview.  “I was looking at his pant leg and his perfectly creased pant, and I’m thinking, a.) he’s going to be president and b.) he’ll be a very good president.”  Now that’s what I call deep thinking.

Obama certainly considered Brooks a liberal.  When conservative columnist George Will hosted a dinner for Obama at his home during the 2008 campaign, he invited several conservative friends, including Charles Krauthammer, Larry Kudlow, Paul Gigot and David Brooks.  When the president shook hands with Brooks he said, “What are you doing here?”

Continue reading →

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Is the media turning on Obama?

“No American president can survive if he lets Americans be beheaded on international television with impunity.  Impunity! He has to strike back, as an American, it’s in our soul.”  – Chris Mathews, MSNBC’s Hardball.

Mathews (realclearpolitics.com)

Chris Mathews of MSNBC’s Hardball criticized the president over his statement on the Foley beheading. (realclear politics photo)

Yes, the same Chris Mathews, who said after heading President Obama speak in 2008,”I felt a thrill going up my leg.”  I doubt if the thrill has gone from the liberal Mathews, but his remarks on the James Foley beheading was said quite forcefully on air.

Dowd (dentonrc.com)

Columnist Maureen Dowd has had some unkind things to say about the president. (dentonrc.com)

“The extraordinary candidate turns out to be the most ordinary of men, frittering away precious time on the links,” wrote columnist Maureen Dowd, adding “… this is an ugly, confusing and frightening time at home and abroad, and the country needs its president to illuminate and lead, not sink into some petulant expression of his aloofness, where he regards himself as a party of his own and a victim of petty, needy, bickering egomaniacs.”

“Obama making fools of the media,” read a headline in The Washington Times  that caught my eye, but it turned out to be old stuff.  Columnist Joseph Curl summarized all of the White House scandals that have disappeared from the news, thanks to a disinterested media.  “Say what you will about the president and his soulless team of sycophants, but they’re good.  They know to play the media, which apparently doesn’t mind in the least being played,” Curl wrote. Continue reading →

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Missouri Gov. Nixon’s rush to judgment

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon has called for the “vigorous prosecution” of the white police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown, an 18-year old black man. This comes just days after he made shameful comments about the Ferguson police on NBC’s Meet the Press, Aug. 17, 2014, reported in my post, “He didn’t bother nobody.”

The governor’s press representative claimed that the governor was not prejudging the police officer, who may have acted in self-defense.  Yet, in the governor’s scripted message, he called for the need to achieve justice for the family of the slain man, while referring to the shooting as having taken place in broad daylight; the last description newsmen say is normally used for criminal investigations.  So much for the presumption of innocence.

Nixon’s aggressive posture leads one to believe he is currying favor with those seeking the arrest of the police officer.  It comes as a grand jury is about to meet to consider the incident.  Democrats running for office in the Republican-leaning Missouri need the support of black voters to get elected.

Pressure is also on another Democrat, Bob McCulloch, St. Louis County prosecutor.  Those seeking justice for Brown are concerned that McCulloch comes from a police family.  His father was killed 50 years ago in the line of duty by a black suspect.  State and local Democrat Party members want him to step aside. Continue reading →

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And she wants to be president, Part 5

“… we don’t even tell our own story very well these days,” Hillary Clinton told Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic magazine interview; the same piece in which she criticized the president’s foreign policy of “don’t do stupid stuff.”

Like President Obama, Clinton must believe she operated completely under the radar and that no one was paying attention to what she said and did, or didn’t do.… read more

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“He didn’t bother nobody.”

After a school shooting, how often did we hear, “he was a good boy, never in trouble,” or “he would always wave to me as I passed, really a friendly guy.”

Remember the description of the Boston bomber Tsarnaev brothers as “regular guys?”  A teacher who lived on the same street said, I knew him (Dzhokhar) as nothing but sociable, compassionate, friendly, athletic, just a friendly kid.”

Fast forward to this past week in Ferguson, MO and the killing of 18-year old Michael Brown.  “My son just turned 18 and graduated from high school and he didn’t bother nobody,” his mother, Leslie McSpadden told CNN.

He wasn’t armed, yet he lay dead in the street after an altercation with a police officer, who was armed.  Call me cynic, but when I heard Brown was 6’ 4 “ and 290 pounds and that he allegedly pushed the officer into his vehicle and tried to get the officer’s gun, I wasn’t buying “he didn’t bother nobody.” Continue reading →

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Liberal journalist launches trial balloon

              Obama’s Immigration Amnesty Would Be Like Lincoln’s Emancipation

lANE(amarillo.com)

Charles Lane (Amarillo.com)

 Just when you think you’ve heard it all from the liberal media, another Obama water carrier – this time Charles Lane – provides more red meat for those of us who comment on the right.  You just can’t make this stuff up.

Lincoln (civil-war 15-.com)

President Lincoln signing his Emancipation Proclamation. Charles Lane draws an analogy of President Obama signing an executive order legalizing 5 million undocumented illegals. (civil-war-150.com)

 “Not since Lincoln pondered his Emancipation Proclamation has a president considered a more sweeping change to membership in the American community than the relief for illegal immigrants that President Obama is contemplating,” writes Lane in the Investor’s Business Daily.

 “A plan to offer up to 5 million undocumented parents of U.S. citizens and others … wouldn’t cover all illegal immigrants any more than Lincoln’s proclamation freed every slave,” he writes.  “Still, its impact would be dramatic and might define Obama’s legacy as powerfully as the Emancipation Proclamation defined Lincoln’s.”  Incredible!

 Such a move would “tear up the Constitution,” commented George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley, who I have frequently quoted in past posts.  Perhaps it’s because he is a Democrat who voted for Obama, but stands strong on protection of the Constitution. Continue reading →

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Flagstaff editor wrong-headed

“When is a scientific question settled to the point that entertaining further debate becomes not only a waste of precious newsprint but also a diversion from finding a solution to the problems raised by the answer to the question?” So wrote  Arizona Daily Sun Editor Randy Wilson, as he told readers he would no longer publish opposition opinions on human-caused climate change.

Wilson (lee.net)

Randy Wilson, editor of the Arizona Daily Sun in Flagstaff recently told readers human-caused climate change was settled science and will no longer publish opposing views (lee.net)

Indirectly, this is why my wife and I put Flagstaff in our rear view mirror in 2005, after residing there for four years.  We had decided to move to the cool pines community when I retired after living in Phoenix for 33 years.

With an interest in community relations, I began attending regular community meetings at the Daily Sun at the invitation of Wilson, who was interested in hearing the pulse of the city.  While I felt he leaned left as most newsmen do, he heard both sides of issues.

My wife used her degree in accounting and extensive institutional financial experience to successfully rescue the school district from a fiscal mess; a record that led to a successful run for a position on the school board and eventually its presidency. Continue reading →