Archive for November, 2009:
Doin’ What Comes Naturally
(Apologies to Irving Berlin)… We knew that Barack Obama was turning DC into a mecca for sucking at the public teat, but it perhaps was not as obvious until recently as to what extent this is occurring. RedState member Fred Maidment sent this blog entry from The American to me this morning. It illustrates the depth to which Obama is influenced on “governmentalization” of the private sector. The graphic tells it all:
Unsurprisingly, the low points come during the Democrat(ic) Kennedy, Carter, Clinton and Obama administrations. But the dearth of private sector experience in the Obama cabinet is almost breathtaking. As Nick Schulz notes, “over 90 percent of its prior experience was in the public sector”. Wow.
It shouldn’t be a “wow” moment, though. The Obama administration is promoting exactly what we have suspected it would – elimination of private sector industry in favor of government control. From banking to automotive to health care to “net neutrality” – the government takeover is already well under way. And we shouldn’t be surprised – they’re just doin’ what comes naturally.
Sir, put your hands in the air and step away from the guitar
Two stories in this mornings papers clearly demonstrate where the priorities of the Obama administration lie. First, the Washington Times reports that enforcement against illegal aliens in the workplace has dropped dramatically – arrests are down 50% from last year.
Arrests of illegal immigrant workers have dropped precipitously under President Obama, according to figures released Wednesday.
Criminal arrests, administrative arrests, indictments and convictions of illegal immigrants at work sites all fell by more than 50 percent from fiscal 2008 to fiscal 2009.
The figures show that Mr. Obama has made good on his pledge to shift enforcement away from going after illegal immigrant workers themselves – but at the expense of Americans’ jobs, said Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the Republican who compiled the numbers from the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE).
Yet the government seems to have the time to conduct raids on guitar manufacturer Gibson over their alleged use of “endangered woods”
An international crackdown on the use of endangered woods from the world’s rain forests to make musical instruments bubbled over to Music City on Tuesday with a federal raid on Gibson Guitar ’s manufacturing plant, but no arrests.
Agents of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service made a midday appearance and served a search warrant on company officials at Gibson’s Massman Drive manufacturing plant, where it makes acoustic and electric guitars.
What does this say about the strategy of this administration: drop the enforcement of immigration laws – enforcement that can preserve American jobs – and pick on companies like Gibson who still maintain manufacturing in the United States? This same “strategy” is demonstrated in their love for cap-and-trade – pursue policies that are damaging to American business and jobs in order to save trees. Environmentalism over jobs. The priorities of Barack Obama are crystal clear.
Oh wait – is that Barack in the background?