Articles in section: 'Politics'

Rights versus “Benefits”

The poll saysInteresting poll via CNN, the results of which put a finger on much of what is misunderstood about the electorate in the United States of America. The headline is: Majority says government a threat to citizens’ rights.

A majority of Americans think the federal government poses a threat to rights of Americans, according to a new national poll.

Fifty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday say they think the federal government’s become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens. Forty-four percent of those polled disagree. [Read more →]

From section: Commentary, Politics by Sean Curnyn
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Mr. President (Obama): Have Pity On The Working Man

PrezNow, I know that Randy Newman is some kind of darned liberal, and (based on media reports I’ve seen) was quite recently in possession of a very fine case of Bush Derangement Syndrome. I don’t like him for his politics, but I do genuinely enjoy his artful and ironic way with a song. And all I know is that his song Mr. President (written around 1974, but with something of an aura of 1934) has never been a more relevant and sharply-aimed arrow than it is at this very moment. Today, President Barack Obama, in the face of so much incredulity — on both sides of the aisle, mind you — and in the face of so much frustration on the part of average Americans, continues to pursue his ideological goal of getting the hands of the federal government firmly around the U.S. health-care system. On this particular day he is doing it by means of a televised “summit” with Democrats and Republicans from Congress, as if all of the issues have not had more than their due airing over the past 13 months and more; as if he has just not had sufficient time to make his arguments. He persists in this vein while the U.S economy continues to descend in its death spiral, with real working Americans (and once working Americans) continuing to suffer in ever greater numbers, and with no real recovery even in sight. [Read more →]

From section: Commentary, Politics by Sean Curnyn
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Things are looking up, sez President

President Barack ObamaWhaddya know? President Obama is talking up the economy. Based on a drop in the official unemployment rate to just below 10% (9.7%, to be exact), the president said today that “we are climbing out of the huge hole that we found ourselves in.” Of-course, one can’t miss the knock at the previous administration even in such a short statement, and even one designed to be cheering. Still, while his optimism is dubious, to say the least (on a day when total job losses during this recession were corrected up to 8.4 million from 7.2, and when his own budget anticipates a rate of 9.8% even by the end of this year) it is not unusual in historical terms to hear a president talking up the economy. That’s part of what they have the bully pulpit for; to buck up the morale of the average consumer and investor and business owner, so that all confidence is not lost in tough times.

The problem is that Obama is coming very late to this task. [Read more →]

From section: Commentary, Politics by Sean Curnyn
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On the State of the Union

SOTUI’ve been a pretty light Twitter user, all in all, but last night I decided to try “live tweeting” President Obama’s State of the Union speech, for the fun of it. And I figured I may as well recycle all of those stunning bon mots for this little piece on the subject today.

Twitter is of-course a cross-platform communication and social networking application which limits users to no more than 140 characters per “tweet.”

Before the speech began, I took note of someone I observed in the audience: [Read more →]

From section: Commentary, Politics by Sean Curnyn
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The National Gallery of Art and the First Amendment

Pro Life PinAt First Things, Meghan Duke recounts and reflects upon her remarkable experience while visiting the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. last week. [Read more →]

From section: Commentary, Faith, Politics by Sean Curnyn
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Obama administration says: Massachusetts endorsed our health care plan by electing Republican who vowed to defeat it

Heads I Win, Tails You LoseVarious representatives of the Barack Obama administration were out on the Sunday talk shows in the U.S. today, trying to spin the election of Senator Scott Brown (R -MA) [and how often do you see that abbreviation?] as being an endorsement of the Obama agenda, particularly with regard to health care.

I witnessed the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, on “Fox News Sunday,” attemping to do this very thing. Gibbs was making the very same kinds of arguments to host Chris Wallace that Howard Dean tried making a few days ago to MSNBC’s Chris Matthews. Wallace was a lot more tolerant of Gibbs’ incoherent position than Matthews was of Dean’s. This is rather ironic, of-course, since Chris Matthews is well known for being a dyed-in-the-wool liberal, while Wallace works for the hated “conservative” media entity, Fox.

If you haven’t already viewed the encounter between Chris Matthews and Howard Dean the other day, I highly recommend [Read more →]

From section: Commentary, Politics by Sean Curnyn
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Barack Obama: The Emperor’s New Shoes

ShoesThe full transcript of the interview with President Barack Obama by former Bill Clinton campaign worker and staffer George Stephanopoulos is at this link. I had written elsewhere yesterday on some of the excerpts that had been released. Other than those highlights, there’s really not so much more in the interview that is significant. At no point does George S. really pin the president down, allowing him instead to just blather in general terms and do the whole “don’t I sound so moderate and reasonable” thing to the nth degree, as is his wont. That was enough to get him elected, of-course; the crucial independent swing-voters wanted a “post-partisan” practical problem solver and Barack Obama succeeded in making himself sound like that.

The difference now, however, is that [Read more →]

From section: Commentary, Politics by Sean Curnyn
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President Barack Obama and the Right to Trial

PrisonPresident Obama’s policy (as of today) with regard to the Guantanamo Bay detention facility seems to me to be summarizable in the following way:

The use of the military prison at Guantanamo Bay has damaged the reputation of the United States around the world. The U.S. has compromised its principles by detaining people there. We can do better. We will try those who we can in the U.S. court system. We will use military tribunals to decide the fate of a select few. We will repatriate certain others, or persuade other nations to detain them in some manner. In the end, I know we will still be left with some individuals who cannot be dealt with in these ways. These are individuals who cannot be tried in our courts due to a lack of conventional evidence and charges, but who we know all the same to be dangerous men. I, as President, will not under any circumstances risk the security of Americans by letting these individuals go free, given their potential to cause great harm. Therefore we will find a way to legally detain them, here in the U.S., in maximum security prisons, for as long as may be necessary.

The above is no attempt to caricature or to mock the president’s policy, but simply an attempt to state it briefly and fairly based on his own recent remarks and those of members of his administration.

I wonder, however, at what point all those who have been calling for the closure of Guantanamo Bay (some since late in 2001) will realize the implications of President Obama’s policy, if and when it is fully realized. [Read more →]

From section: Commentary, News, Politics by Sean Curnyn
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Barack Obama’s pastor = Sarah Palin’s pastor?

Bibles on the shelfAndrew Sullivan claims a petard is about to be hoisted, in reference to a sermon recently given by the pastor of Governor Sarah Palin’s church, one Larry Kroon. Sullivan clearly believes that it is exactly equivalent to some of the controversial sermon remarks of Barack Obama’s pastor and mentor of twenty years, Jeremiah Wright (remember, Obama named one of his memoirs from a phrase his pastor coined, and praised him enthusiastically until the day he threw him in the garbage). [Read more →]

From section: Commentary, Faith, Politics by Sean Curnyn
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