Thursday, March 05, 2009

Karl's Weekend Reading

Randall Hoven writes at American Thinker, Bingo! Call It Communism. Doesn't he know throwing labels like "Communism" around distracts from the national dialogue that will lead us out of this (or that) crisis? An excellent article that compares the 44 goals of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA) with Obama's decisions as President:

Only two items on the whole list appear to be contradicted.

1.3 No bailouts for banks.

4.4 No expansion of troops in Afghanistan.

Frankly, I'm suspicious about the bailout of banks. Sure, they're being "bailed out," if you call becoming an indentured servant being bailed out of bankruptcy jail. The banks are now being told how to run their businesses, how much they can make in bonuses, where to have their meetings (e.g., not Las Vegas), and how to get there (not private jets).

In fact, many are, or will be, nationalized. I think we can, effectively, scratch item 1.3 off our list.

So what's the score? Of 44 items on the CPUSA's list,

22 are already enacted.
21 are in work.
1 is being violated.


Ushanka.us is becoming an echo chamber for Townhall's Laura Hollis. This week's article, Let the "moderate" Obama voters' beware. A retort to the moderates liberals progressives communists that are now whining 'we didn't know Obama was a liberal'. Puhlease. Stop whining and go try to find yourself a new job.

...so-called “progressives” in this country – and President Obama is at the front of this line - would freely toss away the protections provided in our Constitution, if it meant being able to grab some extra cash away from someone who has more.

This is a tried-and-true prescription for economic collapse, poverty, anarchy, chaos, political upheaval, and widespread violence. History has shown us this over and over again. Human beings either live in a system of free and voluntary exchange, or they live at the point of a gun. There is no “middle path,” desperate though some moderates might be to find one...


Pat Buchanan writes in the IBD Editorials, On the Road to Socialism? We've Arrived!

Markets are not infallible. But the stock market has long been a "lead indicator" of where the economy will be six months from now. What are the markets, the collective decisions of millions of investors, saying?

Having fallen every month since Obama's election, with January and February the worst two months in history, they are telling us the stimulus package will not work, that Tim Geithner is clueless about how to save the banks, that the Obama budget portends disaster for the republic.

The president says he is gearing up for a fight on his budget.

Good. Let's give him one.


WSJ Tuesday's Opinion Page: The Obama Economy.



So what has happened in the last two months? The economy has received no great new outside shock. Exchange rates and other prices have been stable, and there are no security crises of note. The reality of a sharp recession has been known and built into stock prices since last year's fourth quarter.

What is new is the unveiling of Mr. Obama's agenda and his approach to governance. Every new President has a finite stock of capital -- financial and political -- to deploy, and amid recession Mr. Obama has more than most. But one negative revelation has been the way he has chosen to spend his scarce resources on income transfers rather than growth promotion.