Leftism

Rehabilitating Bush

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Let the  rehabilitation  of Bush begin! For the past 8 years, the most strident and hysterical leftist  criticism  of Bush has centered on his  intelligence  policies which leftists assured us arose purely out of a callous disregard for civil liberties and human rights, if not outright evil.  

Now we read this from the WSJ [h/t Instapundit]:

President-elect Barack Obama is unlikely to radically overhaul controversial Bush administration intelligence policies, advisers say…They say he is likely to fill key intelligence posts with pragmatists.

Whoa, whoa whoa! Pragmatic? Bush’s polices are suddenly pragmatic? What about the  incessant  ranting for years that Bush had gone far beyond any practical  necessity?  

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Please, Please Stick to the Teleprompter

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Wow, only a few days being the president elect and Obama already lost Indiana (and maybe a few other states) for the next election for bashing on one of his most vehement, politically active,  supercharged frothing at the mouth opponents of this day…Nancy Reagan.

Geez, I figured they would have to raise taxes or introduce some sort of silly gun ban FIRST to get the conservatives riled up.

I would assume that Obama’s handlers are asking him to stick to the prepared scripts for a while here.   I heard that Obama did call Nancy Reagan to apologize.   I am sure she was extremely nice to him and made time for the President elect even though she is recovering from a broken pelvis suffered in a recent fall.

Dan Quayle indeed.

“Buying Fire Insurance From An Arsonist”

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In a recent Chicagoboyz post by David Foster we discussed whether the Democrats really understand the importance of small businesses to the economy.

There’s a great comment by Carl Pham in a discussion on Rand Simberg’s blog that puts the issue into broader perspective:

…The government should do whatever it is that makes new jobs more plentiful, whatever increases the salaries offered to new hires, whatever makes people running companies (or about to start companies) decide to take on more people and pay out more salaries.
 
And what do you suppose is the exact opposite of that policy? You guessed it, raising taxes, particularly raising taxes on higher income people (those with capital to invest in paying salaries) or on businesses (duh). We’ve known this since FDR fucked up the economy and prolonged the Depression by (modern economists estimate) nearly seven long years.
 
Obama and his party are not stupid, of course. They know this very well. So why go down that path? Because they’re not interested in a recovered economy. They’re not interested in a booming private sector, with lots of great high-paying jobs. That doesn’t help Democrats keep power, does it? That doesn’t make people want to vote the Federal government more and more control over the economy, let the Democrat civil servants hire more and more assistants for a bigger and bigger “helping” bureaucracy, does it? What brings Democrats to power, and keeps them in power, is an anemic economy, despair everywhere, no jobs, and people so desperate they’ll swallow their pride and take a government hand-out to survive. So that’s what they’d like to see. They’re not economic idiots. They just have different goals than most of us, and those goals do not include having us not need them.
 
You’re buying fire insurance from an arsonist, my friend.

Read the whole discussion.

Political Will and Technology

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So, Obama plans to implement an auction-based carbon cap-and-trade system so onerous that it would bankrupt anybody that tried to build a coal fired plant. Not to worry, however, he will use the proceeds of the auction to fund alternative energy sources. [video, transcript] [h/t Instapundit]

Obama’s plan drives home a trait of leftists that I have noticed for several years: They do not seem to  distinguish  between altering human behavior (which requires nothing but the willingness to use force) and creating new viable technology (which depends on the laws of nature). In other words, they believe that if you have the will to create something, then can force people to create it.  

In this case, this trait leads Obama to set policy based on the assumption that he can order the creation of new, non-carbon-emitting power sources as easily as he can order the shutting down of coal plants.

We’ll, he can’t. It’s easy to destroy and threaten but it is very difficult to create.

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They Never Give Without Taking

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From the WSJ comes an article about opposition to Arizona Proposition 101. The proposition:

“Prohibits laws that: restrict person’s choice of private health care systems or private plans; interfere with person’s or entity’s right to pay directly for lawful medical services; impose a penalty or fine for choosing to obtain or decline health care coverage or for participation in any health care system or plan.
 
A “yes” vote shall have the effect of prohibiting laws that restrict a person’s choice of private health care systems or private plans, interfere with a person or an entity’s right to pay for lawful medical services, and impose a penalty or fine for choosing to obtain or decline health care coverage or for participation in any health care system or plan. Yes.
 
A “no” vote shall have the effect of retaining the current law regarding a person or entity’s health care choices. No.”

The opposition to Prop 101 reveals the ugly truth about leftism. It’s not about  compassion, it’s about control.  Free stuff from the government always come with limitations on personal choice and freedom. If they really cared about people first, they would just transfer money directly to people (either in cash or vouchers) and then let individuals make the choices.  Instead, they dictate to people what they can and cannot do.

Prop 101 threatens advocates of socialized medicine because any system that gives people the legal power to choose their own medical care will not provide the control and dominance they so crave.  

I think it might be a good idea to put similar propositions up for many different areas, such as housing, power, transportation etc. It would reveal to people just how controlling the Left is at heart.