Category Archives: Democrats

Mr. Omega to Alpha Male Obama: ‘Quit Your Cr-p!’

Barack Obama, Business, Democrats, Education, Elections, Political Economy, Politics

“If I am not for myself, then who will be for me? … And if not now, when?” said Rabbi Hillel the Elder.

At last a fabulously rich, self-made man has awoken to the fact that it’s time to fight for his life’s work; stand up for his achievements, take pride in his intelligence and graft. Quit pretending an agitator from Chicago, who has lived off the public teat for his entire life, is better than a billionaire who has built a business from scratch. Billionaire investor Leon Cooperman has “made public his letter to the President.” Read it on Gerri Willis’ Fox Business blog.

I like the part where he shows president ponce what real work means, although I am sick of the give-back fallacy or the pleas about divisiveness. That the president is divisive is secondary to the fact that he’s an ass with ears, ignorant of economics and oblivious to rights.

To the letter (I think Cooperman is far more eloquent than Peggy Noonan, Court Courtesan to Bush, whom Cooperman praises):

Just to be clear, while I have been richly rewarded by a life of hard work (and a great deal of luck), I was not to-the-manor-born. My father was a plumber who practiced his trade in the South Bronx after he and my mother emigrated from Poland. I was the first member of my family to earn a college degree. I benefited from both a good public education system (P.S. 75, Morris High School and Hunter College, all in the Bronx) and my parents’ constant prodding. When I joined Goldman Sachs following graduation from Columbia University’s business school, I had no money in the bank, a negative net worth, a National Defense Education Act student loan to repay, and a six-month-old child (not to mention his mother, my wife of now 47 years) to support. I had a successful, near-25-year run at Goldman, which I left 20 years ago to start a private investment firm. As a result of my good fortune, I have been able to give away to those less blessed far more than I have spent on myself and my family over a lifetime, and last year I subscribed to Warren Buffet’s Giving Pledge to ensure that my money, properly stewarded, continues to do some good after I’m gone.

My story is anything but unique. I know many people who are similarly situated, by both humble family history and hard-won accomplishment, whose greatest joy in life is to use their resources to sustain their communities. Some have achieved a level of wealth where philanthropy is no longer a by-product of their work but its primary impetus. This is as it should be. We feel privileged to be in a position to give back, and we do. My parents would have expected nothing less of me.

I am not, by training or disposition, a policy wonk, polemicist or pamphleteer. I confess admiration for those who, with greater clarity of expression and command of the relevant statistical details, make these same points with more eloquence and authoritativeness than I can hope to muster. For recent examples, I would point you to “Hunting the Rich” (Leaders, The Economist, September 24, 2011), “The Divider vs. the Thinker” (Peggy Noonan, The Wall Street Journal, October 29, 2011), “Wall Street Occupiers Misdirect Anger” (Christine Todd Whitman, Bloomberg, October 31, 2011), and “Beyond Occupy” (Bill Keller, The New York Times, October 31, 2011) – all, if you haven’t read them, making estimable work of the subject. …

Read more.

Super Politburo: Teflon Politics at its Best

Debt, Democrats, Economy, Politics, Republicans

The more pertinent point to make about the Super Committee, and its failure today to come up with “$1.2 trillion in deficit-reduction measures,” is not that it is unelected. Unelected and unaccountable is the hallmark of the shakers and movers of our Managerial State.

A soviet-style, souped-up politburo is making decisions that are generally entrusted to the people’s representatives. That’s the mundane and obvious complaint that has been lodged against the Super Committee.

But who in his right mind still believes that elected representatives in this democracy of ours carry out the will of the majority and protect the minority? (A point belabored in “Into the cannibal’s Pot” is that democracy gives “the People’s representatives carte blanche to do exactly as they please.”)

The people’s business in the welfare-warfare managerial state is relegated to unaccountable, usually faceless bureaucrats, ensconced in enormous bureaucracies. Nothing unusual about that. We’re lucky to know the identity of the “twelve members of Congress, six from the House of Representatives and six from the Senate,” who’re officiating.

Of course this committee was destined to fail. There is no climbing out from under a government debt of $15 trillion when the pols and the people don’t want to downsize their taxpayer-sustained life styles. (Let’s see some leadership from our men and women in uniform; join the civilian workforce.)

The point about the Super Committee is that it has only ever been about Teflon politics: make sure nothing clings to the culprits, members of both Houses and the president. Its achievement—also its aim—is that it puts distance between the debt, on the one hand, and the Congress and the president on the other.

Obama 44%, Paul 34%

Barack Obama, Democracy, Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Ron Paul

With all the hype about the incredible hulk, Chris Christie, I wager that this new Rasmussen Report will go unreported:

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters finds that Obama earns 44% support to Paul’s 34%. Thirteen percent (13%) prefer some other candidate, and nine percent (9%) remain undecided.
This time last month, the two men were essentially even shortly after Paul’s second-place finish in the high-profile Ames, Iowa straw poll. The president posted a narrow 41% to 37% lead over the congressman in July.

Ron Paul still has time to catch up, but the congressman needs some competent campaign strategists. In my opinion (whose less negative line on Israel Paul recently adopted, despite the fact that it was written for him years ago), Paul has come this far despite the help.

New Yorkers Are Onto The Leech-In-Chief

Barack Obama, Democrats, Economy, Elections, Israel, Judaism & Jews, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim

Liberals are denying that New York City’s 9th Congressional District is “a bellwether district.” Their perpetual propaganda cannot repeal reality. Uncontroversially (for a change), I contend, in my new WND.COM column, that “New Yorkers are onto the Leech-in-Chief”:

“Running against Barack Obama’s reckless fiscal policies (the building blocks for which were laid by Bush), a Republican, Catholic businessman has just beaten a Democratic, Jewish, pro-Israel, career politician in New York City’s 9th Congressional District, by 54 to 46 percent.

Bob Turner’s historic win over David Weprin, a first for Republicans since 1923, is reminiscent of Scott Brown’s victory over Martha Coakley in Massachusetts. Given the ethnic composition of the district—almost 40 percent Jewish—the media, however, is spinning the win as a referendum on Obama’s policies on Israel, not the economy.

Had the Democrat not outspent the Republican and outgunned him with the assistance of former president Bill Clinton and Gov. Andrew Cuomo; and had the Jewish voters under scrutiny not been primarily Orthodox, working class, and in opposition to gay marriage—CNN’s Errol Louis might have alluded to Jewish money and influence. Instead, the commentator confined himself to describing the votes cast for a fiscally and socially more conservative representative as ‘tribally’ motivated.”…

Read the rest of “New Yorkers are onto the Leech-in-Chief,” on WND.COM.

My new book, “Into the Cannibal’s Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa,” is available from Amazon.

A newly formatted, splendid Kindle copy is also on sale.