Recent developments in Obamaland

This week and we have a trifecta: three excellent columns about recent events in the Obama White House. The first is by Mark Steyn. His reference to "Mao Ze Dunn" is priceless.

Next, Charles Krauthammer weighs in with a column on the Fox Wars.

Finally, Victor Davis Hanson has a column about the rapidly-changing perceptions of, and dwindling support for, our new President (here).

One salient thought occurred to me even before reading these articles: President Obama has the will to wage an unrelenting war against Fox News, but not against the Islamic Jihadists in Afghanistan.

What is wrong with this picture?

Racist slurs from the left.

Further to my "End of Race Baiting" post, as Mark Steyn points out, racial slurs actually are tolerated by the left, as long as they are aimed at conservatives.

Mark Steyn on Obama and the U.N.

I wish I could write as well as Mark Steyn, but, since I can't, herewith his latest column regarding this week's events at the U.N.

Nuphedrine

The Omnipresent Leader

I don't know if the furor over President Obama's address to the school children in overdone. But I, like many, find the accompanying materials originally drafted by "his" Department of Education "creepy." Mark Steyn, as usual, has an excellent take on the subject.

The war in Afghanistan

A lively debate over the war in Afghanistan has broken out, sparked by George Will's most recent column,Time to Get Out of Afghanistan. His column has already drawn responses from Frederick W. Kagan, Mark R. Levin, Rich Lowry, Mark Steyn, and others.
No doubt,many more will follow.

Each of these authors makes valid points. Afghanistan is a mess, both geographically and politically. I don't know what "victory" there would consist of. What are our near-term and long-term goals, and what price -- especially in blood -- are we willing to pay to achieve them? Maybe this debate will help to clarify these issues

Wars are inherently difficult and bloody undertakings with uncertain outcomes. I certainly don't claim to have any answers. I can only hope that our leaders are giving these issues as much thought as the columnists and bloggers are.

The best of Mark Steyn and Ann Coulter in 2008.

Here for your enjoyment and edification are John Hawkins's picks from Mark Steyn's 2008 columns. And here are his picks from Ann Coulter's 2008 columns. Enjoy!

Nuphedrine

Where is our country headed?

There has been a slew of articles recently about the direction our country is taking. Over at Powerline, John Hinderaker asks Are We a Banana Republic?. Powerline also has a cartoon that captures the current tone of Washington (scroll down about 3/4ths of the way).

Meanwhile, Mark Steyn writes about The Outrage Kabuki now taking place in Washington.

Finally, Peter Robinson has some disquieting perspective from two people who have first-hand knowledge about banana republics.

Do I share their concerns? Absolutely! The claim that we are a nation of laws, not men may quickly be turning into the tag line of a bad joke. There are two related phenomena here: the refusal of our elected representatives to take responsibility for their own frantically-enacted laws (see my earlier post on this), and their efforts to scapegoat private citizens and enact punitive laws against them. Neither bodes well for the country.

This certainly isn't the change I was hoping for.

Who is in charge of our government?

Apparently the British aren't the only ones unable to get the Treasury Department to answer their telephones. Representative Paul Kanjorski (D.), Chairman of the House Capital Markets Subcommittee, says that he knew about the AIG bonuses more than a month before they were issued. He further stated that, if Secretary Geithner claims that he only found out about the bonuses after they were issued, he should check with his telephone and mail departments. He repeatedly contacted Treasury about this issue for more than a month before the bonuses were awarded. The video is here.

Meanwhile, Mark Steyn wonders whether the teleprompter is running things at the White House, and, if so, why it isn't doing a better job.

Obama's first month in office

Does anyone really know what the blizzard of plans that Obama has put forward in his first month in office really entail, other than a massive increase in the size of government and government spending? I doubt it. Certainly not the legislators who have voted and will be voting on these various plans. I don't believe a single one of them read the full spending bill that just passed before voting on it.

This rush (panic really) to legislate is tragic, perhaps catastrophic. Nancy Pelosi's ludicrous claim that every month that passed without the passage of the spending bill would cause the loss of 500 million American jobs is emblematic of the lack of serious consideration these proposals have received.

The military says that speed kills. In the legislative arena, speed leads to the frantic passage of bills written by nameless staffers and passed by elected officials who don't even know what is in them. What we do know is that all of this, if passed, will cost a staggering amount. And President Obama's proposals to pay for all or even most of this new spending are voodoo economics on stilts. And it will be with this for a very long time, even if it turns out we don't like it.

Mark Steyn sums this up better than I can. He certainly does it more wittily.