Links and Minifeatures 2009 01 21 Wednesday

Congratulations, President Obama.

Hilda was home sick sick Tuesday with the flu, and I had it as well. Since it is a special day that happens only once every four years, I suggested we watch the Inauguration, and we sat and watched the last fifteen minutes or so of the leadup, plus the Inaugural and Obama's Inaugural Address.

Now we get into actual deeds and actions, not just talk. I don't believe Obama will be good for the country. But I also hope I'm wrong, and I will not hesitate to agree with him any more than I hesitated to disagree with President Bush.

Leave the New Deal in the History Books

As a short-term matter, the moves of the Fed and other central banks have been correct, but in the long term a return to growth will depend on dynamic job creation by American business -- not the U.S. government. Under a two-year plan designed to create three million to four million jobs, Mr. Obama's plan would have the federal government begin distributing funds for public-works projects carried out by the states. With government already spending 20% of GDP, federal government, not private enterprise, will become the growth industry.

The effect of these policies, like FDR's, will be to lengthen the pain.

Seduced by the Saint

President Obama entered the history books our children will read. His presidency bookends an era that began with segregation between blacks and whites and ended when he became the 44th American president and the first black man in the White House. No one can take that away from him. Nor can anyone doubt his charisma or political skills.

However, the inauguration is just a moment in history. While Obama's toastmaster skills are exceptional, his performance as President is an entirely different and more uncertain matter. Yet if the liberal media's performance to date is any guide, predetermined judgments in favour of Obama will infect coverage of his presidency.

Someone who is still fooling himself as regards the Palestinian goals:

Arabs in the Middle East should learn the lessons of Martin Luther King.

What the vast majority of Arabs have been slow to realize, however, is the profound connection that exists between the history of the struggle that opened the way for Obama to become president, and the future of their own fight for freedom and dignity, and not only in the face of Israeli occupation, but under the tyrannies of so many Arab dictators. We talk about remembering Martin Luther King because of the power of his vision, of his language, of his morality and of his faith. But mainly we remember him because he adopted a strategy of nonviolent confrontation with an insidious and pervasive system of repression--and broke it--and broke through it. We remember him because his way worked.

What we know about the Middle East today is that wars no longer end in victories, and the process of peace never delivers more than the process itself. A new approach has to be found, and the leaders of the governments in the region don't seem up to the task. The most promising is nonviolent resistance: mass protests, boycotts, refusal to obey unjust laws.

He's right in a way. If the Palestinians were willing to accept the same sort of goals Martin Luther King was after, that would work. Actually, there wouldn't be a lot of work to be done.

The problem with this suggestion is that the Palestinians want to actually kill all the Jews. Israeli laws are pretty darned good on the subject of not discriminating (much better than French or German or just about anywhere else outside the US and Canada). Non-Jewish Israelis are found in all walks of life, including the Israeli army (where they volunteer, rather than being drafted like the Jewish population). All they have to do is stop killing Israelis, and Israel accepts them (e.g. the Druze, among others)

But Hamas (and to a lesser extent Fatah) still want to kill all the Jews or drive them out, i.e. conquest and ethnic cleansing. I am unaware of any historical precedent for accomplishing this sort of goal non-violently. Even if the Israelis went willingly to the slaughter, killing them would still be an act of violence.

Seven reasons for healthy skepticism

Top Ten Disturbing Aspects of Obama's Choice of Treasury Secretary

I wish it were a David Letterman routine.

Department of "I do not think it means what you think it means":

Obama Seeks Halt to Legal Proceedings at Guantanamo

In one of its first actions, the Obama administration instructed military prosecutors late Tuesday to seek a 120-day suspension of legal proceedings involving detainees at the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba -- a clear break with the approach of the outgoing Bush administration.

Here I thought the issue was holding people who might not be enemy combatants even though they hadn't done anything, and we were therefore giving them military trials to see if they were combatants or had committed war crimes, and if not, we could let them go. Silly me!

Of course, the 120 day moratorium will only mean that anyone who might actually be innocent will have to wait that much longer to be freed.

This is what we call a "token gesture"

Obama freezes salaries of some White House aides

The pay freeze, first reported by The Associated Press, would hold salaries at their current levels for the roughly 100 White House employees who make over $100,000 a year. "Families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington," said the new president, taking office amid startlingly bad economic times that many fear will grow worse.

Let's say these 100 people lose $4000 each as a result of the freeze.

That's $400,000. Drop in the bucket, even by the standards of the White House Budget, let alone the entire Federal Government.

Don't get me wrong - it's a good thing, as far as it goes. But freezing the pay of 100 white collar federal workers who aren't exactly hurting is not going to solve the problem. Given the yearly deficit projection of 1 trillion dollars that's being batted about, he's cut .00004% of the problem. By my calculations, just over 12 seconds of deficit. And I'll bet it took him longer than 12 seconds to freeze those salaries. Heck, his new and counterproductive spending plan will waste more than that every minute of every day for the next four years.

This is not productive problem solving.

Obama's new lobbying rules will not only ban aides from trying to influence the administration when they leave his staff. Those already hired will be banned from working on matters they have previously lobbied on, or to approach agencies that they once targeted.

Two words in refutation: Secretary (designate) Geithner. Two more: Secretary Clinton. How many more examples do you want? It's great to have these high goals, but actions speak much more loudly, and the actions of the Obama administration are already speaking so loudly I can't hear their words.