Whatsthatsmell?

Why does this seem so current?

I've been going through my MP3 collection making playlists for syncing to my brand new MP3 player...Came across this old gem from Camper Van Beethoven which kind of seemed to strike a chord about the current politico-economical scene, it reminded me of  Barack Obama for some reason:

The Ambiguity Song

Everything seems to be up in the air at this time
Everything seems to be up in the air at this time
One day soon, it'll all settle down
Everything seems to be up in the air at this time
All across the nation, people are gettin' together
From many ideas they form a single goal
Some people are gonna benefit
And others gotta sacrifice
But everything seems to seems to be up in the air at this time

Disappointed...

Still digesting the election results.  A few thoughts, some possibly contradictory:

The GOP pi**ed all over the reason independents would vote for them in the first place by becoming big government types.  Give people a choice between two big government parties and they will choose the one that makes them feel better about themselves.

One the one hand, universal racism being accepted as an excuse for black underachievement in America may now be a thing of the past.  On the other hand, any criticism of Obama will probably be seen as racism.

Talk radio in America will definitely be a lot more interesting over the next couple of years, and if the Dems try to pass a Fairness Doctrine, it will be all-out information war.

I underestimated the power of the media and the gullibility of the American populace, but then, Obama only won by about 5 Million votes, which is not a complete popular landslide.  Then again, maybe I haven't underestimated the power of the media - a $600 Million war chest and a popular media that is 90% in the tank for him still only got him a 6% popular advantage.  As some people pointed out: we knew within 48 hours all about Sarah Palin's family, but they only just discovered Obama's illegal alien aunt last weekend?  If McCain had an illegal alien relative, we would have known by at least last March.

I hope and pray that Obama will govern as the moderate he said he would be, but I won't hold my breath either.  He doesn't have to with a Dem majority in Congress.  The only upside might be that we can have a repeat of the 1992-4 when the Dems over-reached and delivered a Republican Congress in 1994.  I hold out hope, though, for the sake of America, that the Dems don't overreach.  But I won't hold my breath.

Does moving to the "center" help the Republicans?  McCain was arguably, next to Giuliani, the most moderate candidate going.  

Did Palin lose it for him?  No.  I think the McCain campaign mishandled her which made her look like the idiot she clearly is not.  The significant bump she gave to the McCain campaign proves her popularity.  Do we see a Palin-Jindal ticket in 2012?

I do hope that when pushed to the wall on the world stage that Obama will behave as an American president should, and look out for America.  Which means he wouldn't be doing things that ingratiate him to the BBC or the Guardian.  If Obama is doing his job as a head of state, anti-Americanism among the world's elites will continue.  It is better to be right than loved.

Well, that's it for now.  I, for one, will try not to suffer from Obama Derangement Syndrome.  But he's not going to get a pass if he, for instance, fires the US Attorney in Chicago or anything else that smacks of Chicago machine cronyism.  

Sorry it's been quiet...

Not felt like blogging of late.  Lots of stuff to observe and comment on, but no will...

I think it may have a lot to do with the fact that we are watching the end of the world as we know it, and I'm just getting my head around it (and building up my grab-and-go box, just in case.)

I think there are a few things that will affect me directly, and perhaps get exacerbated by the potential nationalisation of everything and the potential presidency of Obama.  Kind of scary.

For one, my anticipated return to the US may be put off for a while, as this whole mess sorts itself out.  It may take longer to get sorted if the wrong policies are pursued (such as a tax hike on "rich" people.)  This is a very real possibility; as one commentator pointed out, there are far-left Democrats in Congress who have been waiting decades for a like-minded POTUS to help them re-engineer America.  Even if Obama is a "moderate", which seems unlikely given his past associations and self-admitted dabblings in Marxism, he is not strong enough to stand up to the apparatchiks in his party.

I really hope I'm wrong, because this could potentially be very problematic, because they are not going to be Fabian in their approach, like almost all good idealogues who finally get their way, they are going to overplay their hand.  And I don't think the American people are the sorts to take things sitting down.  A recent survey, for instance, put American opposition to the redistribution of wealth at about 85%.  85% of the US population is to the right of the Democrat Party platform.  And a lot of them are armed.

And, outside of the government, there isn't going to be a lot of job creation in the US with a Reid-Pelosi-Obama leadership.

The Republicans were dip-sh**s when they were running Congress.  And now we are all going to pay.

 

 

And this economic thing...A lot of Europeans are patting themselves on the back because they avoided this nasty subprime business that's happened in the US.  But as we are seeing the beginning of the end to the problems in the US, we are seeing the end of the beginning for Europe.  Where do you think all that bad debt ended up?  European institutional investors have always preferred debt over equity as investment vehicles.  Those lovely subprime loans looked really tasty a couple of years ago.

Plus the European banks have their own sub-prime messes to muddle through in the Baltics and the Balkans.  The European banking system is teetering completely on the edge.

Why do you think they are dictating to Bush that the US has to come along?  So that when their own systems go tits-up, the US's will too.  Unlike Britain and the US, the European systems have already been nationalized or at least collectivized (as in Germany) to the extent that the banks and private industry are so intertwined that they cannot be considered separate sectors.

So I haven't been of cheery mien of late.  But as with everything, this too, shall soon pass.  But what will take its place?

Obamabots...

If his volunteers feel sufficiently empowered to do this, then imagine how empowered an executive branch populated by 3,000+ appointees would feel...

Folks, an Obama presidency is going to be more triumphalist than the 1997 Labour Party, they are not going to be gracious winners.

(H/T Kim du Toit)

Democracy in action...

Well, It's that time of the election cycle again.  I have just finished filling out my U.S. absentee ballot, and I just wanted to show my British friends how much of a dearth of local accountability there is in the Democratic Socialist Republic of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.  

Here is a breakdown of the roles and laws I voted for, in a state with 9.5 Million people (less than the population of Greater London) and a county with a population of c. 800,000 (less than that of Birmingham):

1   US President 
1   US Senator
2   State Public Service Commissioners
1   US Representative
1   State Senator
1   State Representative
1   District Attorney
1   Probate Court Judge
1   Superior Court Clerk
1   Sheriff
1   Tax Commissioner
1   Chief Magistrate
1   County Commission Chairman
1   County Commissioner
1   County Board of Education
2   State Supreme Court Justices
3   State Court of Appeals Judges
5   County Superior Court Judges
4   County State Court Judges
2   County Soil and Water Conservation Supervisor
3   State Constitutional Amendments
1   County Sales Tax to fund development

36  Total Positions and Laws

What did I vote on at the last British General Election?

1   Member of Parliament
1   Member of European Parliament
1   County Councillor
1   Town Councillor

And one wonders why the British electorate are, mostly, apathetic.

What a butthead...Delayed reaction...

I watched the Daily Show last Friday on More4.  They usually show it here in the UK a couple of days after showing it in the States. 

Most of the time, I completely disagree with the editorial slant taken by the Daily Show, but I still find it extremely funny.  Jon Stewart, the host, is a funny guy, and his delivery is tops, and most of the stuff he pokes fun at is fair game, and can often have me laughing hysterically, despite his mostly ripping into "my side".

Since the announcement of Sarah Palin as Vice Presidential candidate, however, it just hasn't been funny.  I am open-minded enough to appreciate good comedy even when it "offends" one's beliefs and sensibilities.  But most of the shows since the day after the Democratic Convention have been nothing but angry, ugly, sneering, elitist ranting.  The Manhattan bien pensants ripping into someone from Middle America because she isn't like one of them, is the impression I get.  The underlying implication being that as she is from outside their rarefied world then she must be ignorant and not as worldly as the clever clogs that are writing the material on the show.

Well, Friday night's interview with Tony Blair showed just how knowledgeable and worldly Jon Stewart is when no one is writing his lines.  Within the space of five minutes, he made, in my eyes, two of the stupidest "ignorant" American mistakes about geography and history.

First, when Tony Blair explained that he was now teaching at Yale, Stewart asks, "So, do you prefer getting paid in Dollars or Euros?"  Blair politely informed him he prefers British Pounds.

Later, when Blair explained that no two democracies had ever gone to war, Stewart, with a clever smarmy tone, asked "Aren't Britain and Argentina democracies?"

Blair pretended not to hear it, yet Stewart pressed on.  Blair had to inform Stewart that at the time of the Falklands War, Argentina was a dictatorship.

You know, I don't mind people being slightly ignorant of these things, in the grand scheme of American life and culture, these things don't matter.  What I do take issue with is people like Stewart pretending they are more clever than they actually are and making unfounded assumptions about other people's levels of ignorance on the basis of ideology and calling it comedy.

What a tosser.

Actually, that is the problem with many on the Left (I should know, too, I used to be one).  They assume that they are smarter than EVERYONE on the other side of the aisle.  They use smarmy tones to talk down to people they don't agree with, and then they can't figure out why they lose elections.  We're in store for another four years of liberal bleating about stolen elections.

The economy's tanking, George Bush is low in approval ratings, the Republicans are on the backfoot in Congress, the Iraq War is not particularly popular as a political issue, and 80% of the population think the country is going in the wrong direction.

And Obama is only leading by a few percentage points in the polls?  At this point, he should be 15-20 points ahead of McCain.  Who's clever now?

Breaking News Story about Palin...

(Hat tip to Uncle Joe)

McCain-Palin...Wow!

I have to say, I was going with McCain mostly because he was the last bastion against the farthest left presidential candidate ever to run.

I was a Romney guy during the primaries.  And Romney really appealed to my intellect.  He was the smartest guy running for President, but not the best politician in the fray.

The selection of Sarah Palin confirms just how accomplished a politician McCain is.  In selecting Palin, McCain has attracted a lot of people who wouldn't even give him a look in.  Sarah Palin plays well to a lot of people.  For us normal everyday people, Sarah reminds us of a librarian-hot version of all those steely women we know in our lives as mothers, wives, sisters, and aunts.  The sort of women we meet every day, who happen to rise to the occasion when called upon.  The sort of woman who meets the slings and arrows that life throws up in her way, keeps taking it, and then continues to say: Bring it on.

I have to say, watching her speak and come out swinging, I was overwhelmed with emotion, and choked down that lump in my throat.  It reminded me of how great America is that nomal every day people like her choose to go into politics.

I also had a similar response to McCain's acceptance speech last night.  I can't help but keep thinking that the real change people are waiting for is a change wherein politicians have a core belief system and act upon it.  I now have no doubt that McCain, as much as I have disagreed with him at times, works from that core that says that America is the greatest country in the world, and that every political move he makes is less about McCain and more about America.

I think we are seeing the beginning of the end of Obama.

Is it possible for Libertarians not to be Utopian?

It was Ronald Reagan that said: "The person who agrees with you 80 percent of the time is a friend and an ally"

How about when that person agrees with you more than 90%?

I was waiting to see what this lot would come up with in regard to Defence, Immigration and other issues...Their Manifesto is now available and contains wording which floats my boat.

On Immigration:

Totally free movement of people into the UK is not practical whilst we have a large welfare state and other countries are themselves not broadly Libertarian in nature. In line with the Rule of Law, a transparent, consistent points based system is one of our key proposed measures to humanely manage migration.

I was expecting to see them embrace the wholesale opening of our borders in fundamentalist Libertarian form.

On Defence:

Our aim is to ensure a strong, independent, sovereign nation. This requires a well funded, trained and equipped professional Armed Forces (both full time and Reservist), geared for the defence of our nation and shipping.

I wasn't expecting much here, either, but this is a stronger plank than the Tories.

And on the Constitution:

The Libertarian Party is committed to reassert the primacy of our Bill of Rights and Common Law system over the Napoleonic system that has encroached from the continent in recent years.

There is actually some very patriotic aspects to this brand of Libertarianism.

Maybe worth a further look.

Genuinely excited...

What a perfect pick for a Vice Presidential candidate: Sarah Palin.

Hugh Hewitt summed it up beautifully:

When the Dems come after Palin for inexperience in foreign affairs, the reply will be obvious --the GOP vice-presidential nominee is as experienced as the Democratic presidential nominee but also has executive decision-making that Obama lacks.  

Palin's  tough stance on reform of long corrupt practices is going to give her a very clear advantage over practiced cronyists Obama and Biden.

And she knows the crucial energy issue very, very well, as well as a variety of land-use and property rights issues dear to many in the crucial mountain west.

I have to say, I am genuinely excited about this.  A real coup for McCain.