barack obama

Chris Knight's avatar

I said Friday afternoon that I was leaving the blog until Monday. Anytime I take a respite, I’m serious about it. And it’s gonna take something really damned bad to drag me back here.

If this ain’t bad enough, then I sure as hell don’t know what is…

President Barack Obama has effectively FIRED Rick Wagoner, the CEO of General Motors.

What this means is that the United States federal government has pretty much nationalized and taken over a private company. It’s likely not going to be called that officially, but the policy is still the same.

Has a President of the United States ever done anything like this, in the history of this country? Certainly not in recent memory. The closest I can think of is what happened between Ronald Reagan and the air traffic controllers’ union… but not Reagan or any other President in living recollection ...

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Can we call it “national socialism” now?

In the name of preventing damage to “the broader economy”, President Obama and his Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner are now seeking power to seize a wider array of businesses, and not necessarily banking/finance-related firms either.

I was afraid this would happen.

The regulation pendulum has been swinging wildly between both far ends of the spectrum. During the administration of George W. Bush there was a lot less regulation of such businesses, and that’s a big reason why we’re in our current economic mess. Now the Obama gang, exploiting public outrage like that about the AIG bonuses, is going to drive us toward too much regulation.

When the American government begins seriously talking about nationalizing businesses, start worrying. One way or another, if Obama and his bunch gets this kind of “authority”, it ain’t gonna end well....

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As I do every year, at the moment I am watching the Presidential State of the Union Address. And by “watching” I mean that, per my usual custom, I have my back turned to the television so that I’m not tuned in to the imagery at all. Stripped of the visual component, my brain is more keenly listening to what Barack Obama is really saying.

So what do I think? He is definitely far more articulate and presidential-sounding than George W. Bush. Unfortunately he’s talking about wasting money just as bad as Bush ever did.

(And as an aside, I miss tuning in to this without the live and uncommonly wise commentary of young master Kyle Williams. Hey Kyle, I know you’re reading this: it’s way past time for you to start a blog or something ‘cuz I still get lots of e-mail from people asking how you’re doing and ...

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It’s become “The Rant Heard ‘Round the World”: CNBC’s Rick Santelli on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange two days ago, blasting President Obama’s mortgage bailout plans and calling for a new “tea party”…

Santelli’s impromptu screed alarmed the Obama Administration enough that Press Secretary Robert Gibbs attacked Santelli during the daily White House press briefing yesterday.

Most of y’all who read this blog on a regular basis know what I’m gonna say already: that Rick Santelli is absolutely correct. That the American government is rewarding “bad behavior” and consequently is punishing those who are striving to play fairly by the rules.

At every level, government in the United States is out of control. It has “gone rogue”. Our government is no longer of the people, by the people and for the people. It is now an entity unto itself, existing for its own sake, and proven willing ...

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The $787 BILLION package is now enacted legislation, as President Barack Obama signed the bill at a ceremony in Denver.

There might be another “stimulus” coming soon, believe it or not.

And on the day of this esteemed occasion, the Dow dropped 297.81 points, -3.79%, to close at 7,552.60.

And on a somewhat related note, I’ve been hearing some curious rumblings about stuff going down in the Eastern Europe markets, that might bear watching for the time being....

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Awright, I’m prepared to go ahead and say it: the Obama Presidency is already a disaster. And this legislation is gonna be about as successful as the Smoot-Hawley Act.

Word out of D.C. tonight is that a tentative agreement on the “stimulus” package has been reached in the Senate. It’s probably going to be enacted law over the weekend or soon afterward.

Said “stimulus” is going to cost me and you, Fellow Taxpayer…

$780,000,000,000

According to one senator, James Inhofe out of Oklahoma, the bill is only 7% stimulating and the rest of it is just more spending.

I remember the big budget battle in 1993. It’s what really started opening my eyes on all the waste that goes on in the federal government. And I never thought that I would see anything that outrageous again.

If the phone lines to Washington D.C. don’t burn up with ...

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Remember all that talk of “hope and change” during the past election cycle? What happened to it? Because now President Barack Obama is sounding like the dire opposite of Franklin Roosevelt, warning that if the “stimulus” bill isn’t passed…

“This recession might linger for years. Our economy will lose 5 million more jobs. Unemployment will approach double digits. Our nation will sink deeper into a crisis that, at some point, we may not be able to reverse.”

Not even three weeks into the job and the man’s already done did a “malaise speech”.

Dear President Obama: if you seriously want to stimulate the economy across the board, you cannot do it with more spending! That might seem to buy some time in the short term, but what is really needed is to cut taxes and CUT SPENDING!

That may not win Obama any early accolades, but posterity would ultimately ...

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Those annoying “There are ## days left until digital television” bumpers that run during your favorite TV shows have suddenly vanished, and for good reason: instead of having until February 17th to make sure your television is compatible, you now have until June 12th. Both the U.S. House and Senate approved the DTV Delay Act, and President Obama has vowed to sign it once it reaches his desk.

Anyhoo, you now have four more months to buy that shiny new HDTV that you’ve been lusting for. Maybe by then there’ll be some more “stimulus checks” coming our way that’ll help you get it 😛

(DISCLAIMER: The Knight Shift blog and its author are against so-called “stimulus” programs)...

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Even though he has pledged to end outright torture (no matter what its supporters have tried to brand it as), is closing the CIA secret prisons and has vowed to empty the camp at Guantanamo Bay, President Barack Obama is going to continue the policy of “foreign renditions” started by his predecessor George W. Bush.

Rendition means that the United States can secretly abduct a “suspect”, and have him or her covertly transferred to another country that doesn’t have the same official policies against torture. But it’s not the United States that will be doing the torture or whatever, see? Officially, our government gets to keep its hands clean.

Some will call that “plausible deniability”. I call it “using the letter of the law to defeat the spirit of the law” at its most grandiose.

Still waiting for that “change” that I was hearing so much about…...

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