Hope and Change ... Somewhere Else

For those who look back at the last month and can't believe we just turned over our wallets, our keys, and our children's futures to a group of amatures, we are reminded (h/t: kausfiles) of this sad fact about various hotbeds of the new hope and change fiasco that got us here:

Once a primary destination for Americans, L.A. – along with places like Detroit, New York and Chicago – now suffers among the highest rates of out-migration in the country.

What does it say about a people who votes into national office the same party that has so miserably failed it at home?

Okay, NY isn't technically run by a Democrat; Bloomberg is an Independent. Does that make him the poster-boy for post-partisan politics?

UPDATE: Mrs. Swift reminds us of the consequences of socialism, specifically the rampant growth of envy. During Communism, a popular Polish joke went something like this: A Pole is asked by his fairy godmother to wish for anything that he wants, with the qualification that his neighbor will get twice as much. The old Pole thinks for a moment and replies: "Nothing!"

Obama, the Dow, and Alfred E. Neuman

Taking a look at the President's Gallup Daily numbers can bring about unintended good feelings for those who see the stock market dropping into the toilet.

According to Gallup Daily: Obama Job Approval, the President's approval rating (based on a 3-day rolling average) began at 68% and concluded a month later at 59%. That's a 9 point drop or a decline of 13%. When Gallup reported its findings* on the 23rd, it said modestly that approval is only "down slightly".

Obama's fans - who have been watching his series of mis-steps (who knew that the botched Oath of Office would be such an accurate omen?) and the self-inflicted wounds of the Democratic Party as it embraces the "culture of corruption" - are relieved that so little damage has been done to The One. But how does Obama's slightly dropping approval rate bring good economic news? Consider the stock market.

January was the coldest of months for the Dow in over a century. And the specific period running from Obama's first full day in office to February 23 (covering the same time period as Gallup's daily poll) saw the market drop just 10%. It's a free-fall! We're on the verge of catastrophe! Right? Wrong!

Obama is dropping faster than the market, 13% vs. 10%. If the President is only "down slightly", why all the doom and gloom over the economy? What is 3 points less than "slightly"? Maybe not "not at all" but, at the very least, "not enough to worry about"!

Don't you feel better already?


[*The report on the 23rd used a rolling average up to Feb 19-21 which is not as bad as the full-month average ending Feb 21-23.]

Random Lines?

Drudge links to the following stories today. One, about Iran, says:

Iran's success in reaching such a "breakout capacity" – a stage that would allow it to produce enough fissile material for a bomb in a matter of months – crosses a "red line" that for years Israel has said it would not accept. [Emphasis added.]

The other, concerning Israel, notes:

Israeli President Shimon Peres chose hard-line Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday to form a new Israeli government, giving Netanyahu six weeks to cobble together a coalition. [Emphasis added.]

Since all enlightened people know that we're just a bunch of randomly arranged atoms hurtling through space, we're inclined to dismiss this as just mere cosmic coincidence. Unless, of course, "red" and "hard" turn out to by synonyms.

UPDATE: In a political world where red and blue are opposites: if red is hard, what does that make blue? And if a red-Netanyahu takes a hard-line on extremists like Iran, what are we to conclude about a blue-Obama?

Changing the Lobby

Some stodgy skeptics said that we wouldn't really get "change" with Obama in charge. How wrong they were!

In old-time politics, industry experts who had experience advising legislators on crafting public policy were invited to join a new administration. After years of relatively low-paying public service, they then moved back to industry or to lobbying firms where they could utilize their understanding of the political process to benefit their employers.

In the new-and-improved politics of the most ethical administration in the history of the world, things are different. In fact, the system has been turned on its head. Obama's campaign aides aren't selfishly going into public service positions first. No! Instead, they are generously moving straight to the cash troughs at K Street firms before being tainted by service to the common good.

If a complete reversal isn't change, then nothing is!

The more entrenched, ideological skeptics point out that lots of ex-lobbyists joined, or tried to join, the new administration. "Just business as usual", they scoff. But the president is getting a bum wrap. Of those merely dozen-or-so exceptions that Obama has granted to his ethical standards, it is a blatant lie to include poor Sen. Tom Daschle. Daschle might have come from a powerful legal/lobbying firm (and duly returned there with tail between his legs), but he is not a lobbyist. Okay, he's not a lawyer, either, but he's not a lobbyist. Lobbyists have to be registered; he is not. He merely "advis[es] the firm’s clients on issues related to all aspects of public policy". Sure, he makes a fat-cat-lobbyist-like salary for his efforts, but he is not a lobbyist.

These attacks on the President are being waged by a bunch of non-believing, unpatriotic ideologues who can't get it through their Neanderthal heads that Obama won. Don't pay attention to them.

Vacation Reading

The New York Post is complaining that President Obama, who threatened catastrophe if the stimulus package were not approved, is taking his sweet time to sign the bill into law. They appear to have forgotten Obama's vow:

We will go through our federal budget – page by page, line by line – eliminating those programs we don’t need, and insisting that those we do operate in a sensible cost-effective way.

In other words, the President is giving himself only three days to read the 1,100 page spending bill; that's 367 pages (or about 8,100 lines) per day. Obviously, he had to take a little time off from his normal job (reversing the rise of the oceans, healing the planet, etc.). You just don't want to rush something this important.

UPDATE: It's now Tuesday and the bill has just been signed into law. Some people, however, are skeptical that the President actually read the whole thing over the weekend. But who would sign a check for that much money without first reading the bill? Surely it's just too unbelievable to be true.

Just the Cash, Ma'am

$787,000,000,000 stimulus bill ... divided by 3,500,000 estimated jobs ... equals $224,857.14 per job.

Umm...could I just have the cash?

Murtha's Little Blue Pill

We recently worried that, in the New Blago-Bizzaro World, being investigated for a crime was actually worse than admitting to or being convicted of criminal behavior. The string of corrupt Democratic mayors ironically proved to be heartening, as has the fact that Tom Daschel (D) and Nancy Killefer (D) went down in flames for admitted tax evasion. (Okay, that's a bit of an overstatement. The nominations might have gone down in flames but we expect that they will be alive and well, raking in the cash by peddling their influence to the highest corporate bidders.)

Today, we are further relieved that innocent-until-proven-guilty is still the law of the land. The evidence? Rep. John Murtha (D) is reportedly (h/t Instapundit) being investigated rather vigorously by the FBI for getting a little too cozy deep in the pockets of a defense lobbying group. Fear not, gentle readers! We don't expect Ol' John to be going anywhere due to a little investigation; after all, he's been in Congress since 1974. As his website boasts:

Of the nearly 10,650 men and women who have served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 1789, only 81 have served longer than he has.

This is a man who has swallowed a bottle-full of congressional Viagra. He might not be smiling like Bob, but he's got real staying power. It will take a lot more than a few FBI raids for him to droop his head in shame.