The American Spectator

Reader Mail

A CALL... TO WHAT?
Re: Jeffrey Lord's Obama's Scam and Pelosi's Pigs:

It is hard to argue with Jeffrey Lord's timely advice to "stop laying down," but exactly how does one do that? Vote Republican, we get screwed. Vote Democrat, we get screwed worse. Vote Libertarian or some other third party, and we become non-participants. Become tax refuseniks, and we go to jail. In all seriousness, I am sure your readers would appreciate a companion article from Mr. Lord outlining some plan of action that ordinary, relatively conservative Americans can follow, to slay the beast, or at least, trim its claws. I myself think that the process is irreversible. The Founders were brilliant, and the edifice they built lasted a long time, but nothing can withstand forever the baser aspects of human nature.
-- David Reich
Auburn, New York

Mr. Lord's essay is nothing short of a clarion call, my only quibble being that it implicates the GOP to a lesser degree than it should. Where we are is a natural outcome of the Democrat worldview, so at least the asses have that as an excuse. Not so the GOP; those guys simply sold their principles.

Anyway, not two paragraphs into the column, I thought of William Wallace, of this country's Founders, of those reclusive souls who populate parts of Idaho's remote panhandle, rifles by their sides.

Maybe Mr. Lord's exactly correct; maybe it's time.
-- Francis M. Hannon, Jr.
Melrose, Massachusetts

I see it happening and feel powerless to do anything about it. Too many people are jumping on this careening pork-wagon for it to stop now. We'll be reduced to a third world country before citizens finally rise up and revolt. Then the choices will be: throw these bums out (unless of course the government has complete control of the polls; ACORN, anybody?) or revolution (unless the government takes our guns)...sigh.
-- John Nelson
Hebron, Connecticut

History is set to repeat itself, again. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009 that is being debated in Washington has all the hallmarks of a classic deja vu. Last year the Federal Government sent out rebate checks in an attempt to stimulate the economy. They also dumped huge sums of money into failing Wall Street banks and insurance firms.

Both had no effect. It's long passed time that central planners learned that throwing good money after bad will not stimulate the economy. We must instead cut taxes, reform burdensome regulation and eliminate government waste. It is not until we pay attention to our past history of stimulus failures, that we can begin to move toward the future. After all, if spending government money solved problems, Russia would be paradise!
-- Johan Klarin

The cynic in me says that the Democrats do not want the recession to end. They want people to depend on government handouts, to have high taxes, and government control of health care, banks, lending, the works. Kudlow at NR points out that Geithner offered no plan to handle the toxic assets, notwithstanding Obama's big buildup last night for the plan to be announced today. No plan, except expand social services dependencies two and three years from now. The Democrats' plan is for continued dependence on government and a permanent Democratic WH and Congress. This recession was created by Congress and Democrats -- Dodd and Frank and Pelosi and Reid -- forcing banks to lend to people who could not quality and packaging the junk for sale to others. Obama referred last night to the "failed policies of the last 8 years," meaning Bush tax cuts, but the failed policies are in fact the Congress-mandated social dependencies.
-- Carl Davis
Marietta, Georgia

Mr. Lord writes with laser precision, "The principle behind it -- enlarging the government, creating more lobbyists and then robbing the taxpayers blind -- yes. This is gospel to liberals on Capitol Hill, always decked out in the language of superior morality and compassion." But he would be better served by widening his scope. Eight years of "Compassionate Conservatism" did exactly the same, only under Republican watch.
-- Ira M. Kessel
Rochester, New York

MAKE SURE TO SET YOUR EXPECTATIONS LOW ENOUGH
Re: Philip Klein's Preparing for Failure:

"My administration inherited a deficit of over one trillion dollars." And seeks to double that immediately whilst complaining that they should be quadrupling it! The not long so ago vaunted "government multiplier effect" seems to have disappeared further down the rabbit hole from us as Krugman, pausing from admiring the glow of his Stockholm treat, is running the tea party.
-- Reid Bogie
Waterbury, Connecticut

One very high ranking Democrat operative who is on a first name basis with the most senior members of the Obama administration lamented (via a columnist at the daily reckoning) that the economy would not be good for the 2010 elections for Democrats and feared that Republicans would reap a windfall if they were competent enough to exploit it. Then he said it is questionable that they are that smart. This is of course a prescient observation which speaks volumes about republican amateurism. The era of Bob Michel is baaack.

If you are naïve enough to suppose that we have a two party state then you must conclude that the Republicans are absolutely incapable of winning seats in 2010. I am not a Republican so I could hardly care but their imbecilities are staggering to the intelligent mind. Democrats are passing 800 trillion USD in legislative lard to buy votes. There is no stimulus to the plan other than to capture votes and win elections. The very strategy of buying votes which FDR started in the 1930s is being re-enacted on steroids in the 2000s because that former strategy earned an iron grip lock on American politics for 60 years...the Republicans' support for this spending catastrophe will consign them to eternal political oblivion.....

In short, Republicans are the Charlie Browns of American politics, addled by unprincipled politics and me-too liberalism/socialism. It is a farce of mythical proportions to suppose that the humungous implicit and explicit taxes of the Obama administration has any more meaning that vote buying and socialist oppression.

My own view is that Republicans are decoys for luring "conservatives" for the oligarchs who continue their march to subjugate Americans for the fascist designs implemented via elite policy making organizations outside the government. The banksters own American lock stock and barrel and most Americans -- contrary to the polls -- are happy to send trillions more to the men who have exported all of our capital and who decimated the banking and financial industries in this country.

I pledge allegiance to Goldman Sachs, and to the conspiracy for which it stands, one racket under Obama, Communist and indivisible, with slavery, debt, and poverty for all.
-- David Bonn

HERE'S A LESSON FOR YOU

Re: Jay D. Homnick's Obama Is Here to Teach Us:

Speaking of "the highest pulpit in the land"...

I understand that the President has had an Executive Order prepared, changing the name of "The White House" to "The Cathedral of the Paragons."

There remains only an official announcement from Robert Gibbs, newly titled also -- "Most Infallible Spinaroo."

Change we can believe in!
-- A. C. Santore

Jay is right about the general tone Obama has taken since he was inaugurated, but wrong about a couple of other things. The first is a simple fact. Bill Clinton was the last former teacher in the White House. After a disastrous term as Arkansas governor, Bill's friends got him a job teaching "constitutional law" at the University of Arkansas. Since liberals believe that the constitution dates back only to the latter days of the New Deal and that it was written entirely by judges, one has to wonder what he and Obama taught to their callow and impressionable little aspiring legal eagles. Jimmy Carter liked to tell people that he was a Sunday school teacher so he could fool them into thinking he was a regular, god-fearin', patriotic American. That would be anything but cool to an Obamabot or Clintonite.

Second, it's discouraging that even some conservatives buy the Keynesian idea that the economy is driven by consumers. No, Jay, consumer confidence cannot create a trillion dollars of wealth out of thin air, like manna from heaven. Someone actually has to invest and work hard to produce that wealth. That's what drives our economy like it does every other economy that has existed, does exist, or will exist.
-- D.M. Duggan

JUNTA ECONOMICS

Re: J.T. Young's This Recession's Unprecedented Costs: 

This article belabors the obvious with no insight into the nature of our economic problem or how to fight the ruling junta's power grabs. I don't mean to be mean spirited but we need to move past technical arguments against massive deficit spending by moving to the material and philosophical demerits of these actions. Otherwise you allow the socialists to frame the debate about how to address the problem as it is laden with the concession to spend our way out of our current depression through massive explicit and implicit taxes. Under these terms the only remaining issue is how cheap of a whore you are -- 800 billion, 770 billion, 1 trillion -- who cares -- a ho is a ho is a ho...

But to play along with the statistical aspect of the debate one area where it must be framed differently is over the value of government statistics. Most opponents of the present and past presidential administrations accept the notion that the recession started in December 2007 as stated. However, much more reliable statistics available from Shadow Government Statistics managed by an economist of sterling reputation shows gdp shrinking since 2001 with perhaps only one quarter of miniscule growth around 2004. The economy has been shrinking non-stop for 8 years. And if you remove the deceit of using gdp instead of gnp the magnitude of economic destruction is much greater and the terminus a quo is much earlier than reported.

To battle a conspiracy you must have facts and I assure you that the government must not be allowed to frame the debate if you are to preserve your freedoms. The stimulus package, tarp, and all other socialist measures are sprints down the road to serfdom and will not resuscitate the economy under any circumstance. They are massive taxes which transfer wealth from the have-nots to the haves. such transfers will impoverish America further. We have become Argentina and no one is crying -- only debating over how many billions the stimulus and bail packages should be...what tune was played on the Titanic as it was sinking? Over that we can cry.
-- David Bonn

THE REALLY LIBERAL ARTS
Re: Daniel J. Flynn's Al Gore's Grammy:

Dude, liberals rip off righteous awards 'cause, like -- puff, puff -- it gets The Man.

What happens when they are, like, The Man, man?
-- David Govett
Davis, California

"What else could possibly explain their four-decade long drought at the Grammys?" That's easy, they're not liberals. The Grammys, Tonys, Oscars, Nobel Peace Prize...etc, have all become meaningless liberal accolades to reassure the inward thinking within their elite liberal bubble-world.
-- John Nelson
Hebron, Connecticut