Posse Incitatus

Sympathy for the flacks

 

As I was at the store the other day, looking at the wall of magazines covered with Obama’s smiling, upturned and heroic face, I felt a sudden pang of sympathy – for his press people.

Think about it. This is as good as it gets. You can’t sustain this kind of fawning press coverage for ever. At some point Angelina and Brad will either get married or break up, Jennifer Aniston will do something, etc., and the public’s attention will wander off.

Anyone taking the helm of the Obama media operation has to know that they are at the peak – their task is merely to cushion and try to retard the fall as much as possible. At some point “hope and change” turns into actual decisions, and when that happens, you will piss people off.

A lot of people are making the worn-out Hitler or Stalin comparisons. The former have some basis in the creepy kind of personal-loyalty pledges from Aston Kutcher and the Obama Jugend videos, and of course Obama’s folks have gone out of their way to mimic 1930s Communist art styles, but I think both miss the mark. Obama has not yet shown himself to be the equal of either man in terms of ruthlessness.

His primary accomplishment has been to coast into the Whitehouse on a massive tailwind of public hope that he is something they’ll like. He certainly campaigned on being everyone’s everything, but as we know, can’t be done.

If anyone, he reminds me of Nicholas II, Czar of the All the Russias (until his overthrow and execution). “Nicky” was that curious thing, a vacillating tyrant, and I sense the same impulses with Obama. He doesn’t relish decisions, but rather prefers to buy time and split the difference. Yet at the same time, he wants control, lots of it, and suddenly our civil liberties paragons are going to find that Mr. Hope and Change has zero problem with wiretaps so long as his the one listening in.

Anyhow, back to the press room, two items for consideration.

The first is that Obama now wants to raise emissions standards. So much for the Big Three. It takes a rare talent to look at the mess that is California’s environmental standards and want to do the same thing to the rest of the nation.

Meanwhile, according to Mickey Kaus, The UAW is figuring that it probably doesn’t need to offer any wage concessions to GM. After all, (non-union) Toyota workers aren’t having their wages cut.

As Kaus points out, however, Toyota can actually pay all its bills. Anyone want to bet on how the public will react to government tax dollars subsidizing demonstrably overpaid autoworkers during a recession? Even in Michigan, I think that will go over like a lead balloon.

Factor in the Bill Clintonesque “middle class tax cut” (a Democrat code phrase for tax increases), and Obama’s sky-high approval ratings will fall to earth in a spectacularly rapid fashion.

And who will he blame? The White House press office.

Obama takes the oath

Over my lunch break I watched Barak Obama’s swearing-in and his inaugural address. The oath was a little funny – he interrupted the Chief Justice in his eagerness – but the speech was fine.

My problem is not with what he said, but whether he meant any of it. The new president is an enormous question mark on so many issues, it’s hard to know what to think. His very newness adds to this. Were he a governor or a veteran of public life, there would be a track record upon which to base assessments, but here we are at a loss.

Only time will tell.

Crime, punishment and the Era of Obama

Over at Ann Althouse's blog, there's a post about how British officials are just beginning to figure out that home burglary is a serious crime.

In the comments,a self-identified Democrat tries to make the argument that the burglary rate in the US is actually higher than that in the UK, and therefore Americans are hardly ones to criticize.

Unfortunately for him, the numbers don't back up what he says.  The FBI page he links to has the following chart which gives US residential burglaries as 42,324 - quite a bit short of the 280,000 which occurred in a nation with 1/5 of our population.  When this is pointed out, he quits the field.

Elsewhere in the comments, there are some shots taken (metaphorically of course) against the Obama administration and the looming prospect of gun control in the US.  This is supposed to happen because the Dems control Congress and, on Tuesday, the presidency.

While I am not one to take threats to liberty lightly, in this case I think the fears of 2nd Amendment supporters are (mostly) unfounded.  I believe this for several reasons.

1.  The Dems aren't suicidal.  Their leadership is hard left, but the rank and file of the party now understands that guns cost them control of Congress 14 years ago.  The Democrats gained control by winning marginal and conservative-leaning districts.  Gun control - which is about as unpopular as it has been in 30 years - will cost them many of these new seats.

2.  The debate has shifted.  Michigan is circling the drain right now, and is piling tax upon regulation in an effort to drive all jobs from the state.  Even so, gun control is dead here.  Gov. Jennifer Granholm hasn't lifted a finger against guns, and since her administration began, the "Castle Doctrine" has been enshrined as the law of the state.  The duty to retreat when attacked has also been eliminated.

If a state like Michigan - which is increasingly under the heel of the Democrat boot - isn't pushing gun control, you know it must be a dead issue.

3.  Obama isn't suicidal.  He wants to have two terms.  He wants to be popular.  Pushing gun control could cost him North Carolina, Virginia and Florida, as well as Congress. 

4.  Obama has nothing invested in it.  As a newcomer to the political scene, he doesn't have that much invested in gun control (or much of anything, honestly).  Personally, the man is an enigma wrapped in a mystery shrouding opportunism. 

5.  The Supreme Court made it almost impossible.  Yes, the feds can play regulatory games, but the courts are no longer the slam dunk that they were pre-Keller.

I also think that the Obama is going to feel personally pressured not to appear soft on crime, that as the First Black President, he's keenly aware of the stereotypes of black politicians being soft or tolerant of crime.  He does not want to be the "hip-hop" president, or a federal version of Kwame Kilpatrick.  While he addended a Black Nationalist church, he is every inch a liberal bourgeois bohemian.  The current print edition of Wine Enthusiast (which which sithkitten subscribes) has him on the cover and highlights his "1,000 bottle home wine cellar."  He's not exactly living the Thug Life.

Indeed, he's more comfortable in a country club than most Republicans.

Thus, as a propertied man with propertied friends, crime is not something he's going to take lightly.

I am still anxious about what he will do, but on the question of gun rights, I don't think he will be much of a threat.

What, me worry?

I've been taking it easy for the past few days blogging-wise.  Competition around the ranch for the home computer has been fierce, but more importantly there isn't much worth commenting on.

Consider:  Our new Secretary of State's primary qualification is that she is married to an ex-president.  They've received hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign officials and potentates, but we can trust her to be objective and not be influenced by any of it.

Meanwhile, the nominee for Treasury Secretary forgot to pay his taxes for years, but didn't forget to take the money his employer set to pay them.  All an "honest mistake," of course.

If you think about it, I mean, really think about it, your head would explode.  Words fail me.  We've heaved so many adjectives at the press and their sycophantic relationship with the Dems, and Obama in particular, but they aren't even bothering to wipe their chins any more.

I'd like to comment on Spartan basketball, but the sport is a mystery to me.  The refs, the calls, the players, I just don't get it.  Good on MSU for beating Penn State, that's all I can really offer.

I'm a fortnight late, but I resolve this year to make the Posse a more gun-oriented blog.  Trips to the range have been few and far between, and I mean to change that.  Gun reviews will also be happening more often. 

Is he ruling us yet?

 

Is it just me, or is all this Obama- worship getting seriously creepy? What’s with the Socialist Realism Time Magazine cover? Do people understand what that makes him look like? Is Stalin really someone who’s image you want to borrow?

I know this is old news, but it still bothers the hell out of me.

The Hoyer! The Hoyer!

Ugh.  Or should that be UGA?

At least the anguish of Brian Hoyer is over. 

According to the box score, he went 18 of 34, but the stats don't even tell the full tale: missing wide-open receivers by yards, throwing to receivers who were five yards short of the sticks in third and fourth down situations.

Still, the defense looked solid, and though they gave up the big play eventually, I can't blame them: the whole game was on them.  Ringer was shut down, as anyone with an above-room-temperature IQ knew he would be.  Georgia's line is tough, and the only way to thin them out was for Hoyer to throw some deep strikes and make them hang back.  He tried - and missed.

The season was still successful.  Kirk Cousins looked great, and with a QB who can hit above 50 percent of his passes, I'm not that worried about losing Javon Ringer.  MSU may finally become a two-dimensional threat.

Go State!  I can't wait until next August.

So this is 2009

The Posse had a quiet New Year's celebration as is our wont, and we're looking forward to watching the Capital One Bowl.  Hopefully by this evening Brian Hoyer will be redeemed and the Spartans will have a decisive victory.

In the larger picture, this is going to be one very interesting and unpredictable year.  We've elected a president who is a mystery even to his admirers.  I don't think he will be the ruin of the nation, and I also have a hope that if nothing else, his elevation will finally end the racial polarization industry.

Without the myth of "The Man" keeping them down, perhaps we can begin some serious reforms in the inner cities, particularly the culture of crime that demonizes academic achievement as "acting white."

Eartha Kitt died a few days ago, and despite the humblest of origins, she became the epitome of true class - articulate, sophisticated, artistic.  Like many people in my generation, I lament that fact that black artists have gone from people like Nat King Cole to Snoop Dogg.  Listen to the diction when Tina Turner speaks - she is one of the last of the generation that believed that the way to fight prejudice was to rise above it, not emulate its most vicious stereotypes.

Anyhow, my resolution for this year is to fully embrace the Dantonio Doctrine:  To focus on what I can change and not worry so much about things that are outside my power.  Happy New Year!