Our Union Under Obama

The President delivered his first State of the Union Address tonight before a joint assembly of Congress.  As was reported hours beforehand, President Obama emphasized his anemic job creation efforts, and recommitted his focus to addressing the spiraling unemployment rate - both of which can be solved, apparently, by the creation of a high-speed railway in these United States.

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Listening to Obama, one could be forgiven for thinking that the President had a tin ear. The obvious lesson from the Massachusetts special election was that the President needed to change course from the far left policies that he championed – policies that are patently out of touch with the majority of Americans (examples of such policies include the President’s stalled health care reform plan, trying terrorists as criminals, cap and trade, etc…).

As regards jobs, nowhere in his remarks did the President indicate anything other than the status quo: big government solutions, direct from Big Brother to you. Specifically, the President’s plans for generating jobs included neither tax breaks for small businesses, nor incentives for the private sector, generally, in any form. Instead, the President rehashed the same ineffective, green jobs - build the transportation infrastructure - and stick it to Wall St. model, that he had discussed, nigh, the entire year.

The lone portion of the President’s speech on jobs that garnered any meaningful, bipartisan applause was his mention of the need to increase U.S. exports - a move that would actually generate new jobs.

The President’s remarks on  health care amounted to a denial of failed policy, and a double-down on the health care reform plan cobbled together by the Senate Finance Committee. After months of backroom deals, the Louisiana Purchase, and the Cornhusker Kickback, Republicans were rightly incredulous when the President invited GOP lawmakers to put forward alternatives to the Senate bill.

In the end, the President blamed former President George W. Bush for much of the calamities facing our Nation, but the effort seemed half-hearted. Obama noted the need to ‘reign in the debt’ that he had inherited, yet offered no insight into how his proposed, massive spending increases squared with reducing the deficit. He suggested that Republicans were uncooperative in the legislative process, yet neglected to mention that Republicans were locked out of negotiations when the White House set the bulk of its legislative priorities. The President railed against the Supreme Court for its recent reversal of McCain – Feingold, yet overlooked the plethora of unions and leftists interest groups that have flourished in its wake.

Even for a politician as shrewd as our President, the remarks seemed disingenuous. In all, it was a fairly typical, Obama speech.

Update: For the record, the President would have fared better with a speech along the lines of this.

Lolcat of the Week

It’s been far too long since we’ve posted a lolcat of the week.  In rectifying the situation this week, the lolcat below reminds me that, in some ways, we all perceive ourselves as the tiny rulers of our own fiefdoms.

Such notions are down right laughable. Enjoy!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

The Dems Own It

Having blamed former President George W. Bush for most calamities - ranging from the War on Terror to Hurricane Katrina itself - the Dems are finally coming around to the reality of power: they are in charge.

Politico has the details.

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Barack Obama's Makeover

Real Clear Politics ran an interesting analytical piece on its blog disecting President Obama's new found sense of populism.

Naturally, its forecast for the experiment's success is far from optimistic.

Politician's try to reinvent themselves all the time, and some find success. But it only works if there's some credibility behind the shift - some truth in advertising, if you will. That's why its' hard to see the public buying into Obama's impersonation of William Jennings Bryan. It's simply not who he is.

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Really, the President's 'reinvention' is simply the latest iteration in a saga of half-truths. For whatever reason, in its dealings with voters, the left seems to place a premium on deception rather than honesty. (See the health care debacle as proof of purchase).

As a political strategy, this approach simply defies rational thought. Voters are far too smart to be deceived by a bad plan. A much better course is to engage the public, and persuade the electorate that yours is the better vision for the body politic.

The irony of the President's makeover is that it is neither engaging, nor persuasive. Obama is no populist and everyone knows this. As a result, the new Obama simply smacks of opportunism, and political survival.

Meanwhile, the people starve for actual leadership and vision - things that the President remains unable to deliver.


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Blogging Zen

If my years in law school have taught me anything, it is that our world is a much more complicated place than it often needs to be. Consider that a recent case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court just to determine the meaning of the word “now” in a statute. I wish I were kidding…  See Carcieri v. Salazar, 129 S. Ct. 1058 (2008).

Given that the political, and social issues we traffic in on this slice of the web are complicated enough, I could not help feeling compelled to simply things in order to be more consistent with my minimalist theme for the new year.

For those who care, my interest in minimalism came about from a year end post on the website ZenHabits.net. In its list of top posts, the site explored how to create a ‘minimalist computer experience.’ The tips offered left me technologically floored.

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Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a compulsive filer. I create folders, and sub-folders on my computers that run many layers deep – almost to the point of absurdity, and almost always teetering on the brink of inefficiency. Naturally, a minimalist approach to such madness has been a welcomed deviation from the norm.  In fact, so taken was I by the concept of minimalism, that I tried to incorporate some of the themes into other areas of my life too.

One quick example.  I try to make it an annual habit to read through the Bible, cover-to-cover, in a year. But for the past six years or so, my efforts have become bogged down by study habits. My penchant for study, in all forms, whether in the classroom or in my personal curiosities, is to mark up books. Underlining, note-taking in the margins (never highlighting, though), and dog-earing pages are all unfortunate blights that affect my personal library. Anyway, this habit of writing in my Bible invariably slowed down my progress each time I attempted to trek through the Bible’s sixty-six books.

To simply this process, I purchased a new Bible made from some of the finest quality materials around, that is small enough to take with me wherever I go, yet too small, and ‘too nice’ to write in. The results have seen me turn an inconsistent exercise into a  daily practice.  Put differently, I no longer feel compelled to mark up what I should be absorbing. And my life is all the better for it.

All of which is a very long way of saying that the present layout, hopefully, serves a similar function. As you can see, the typical headers remain at the top, but all of the sidebars have been relocated to the bottom of the page. The most important information is situated closest to the main box where the posts are located. The less important information such as my political links, blogging credits, etc… are marginalized toward the sides.

The overall goal, of course, is to continue to make Pax Plena user friendly, and to place emphasis back on the text of the conversation rather than the sidebars.  Given that minimalism is a theme of mine, hopefully your experience here will be a bit of ‘blogging zen’ too.

Making Sense of Mass Hysteria

It’s been almost twenty-four hours since Republican Scott Brown wrested away a United States Senate seat, in deep blue Massachusetts, and the only conclusion one can make is that we are much closer to knowing the fate of Obamacare than Harry Reid is to having a Supermajority.

Boston Globe columnists, dealing with the ‘political hangover’, on the proverbial ‘morning after’ concluded that Bay State voters were simply ‘seduced’ by Mr. Brown:

“We were on the dance floor, Scott and I, moving to the music, his hands all over my body politic. Everyone was watching, and I mean everyone – fellow partygoers, bartenders, passersby staring in the windows. Look at me, the Massachusetts Electorate, the bellwether of America!”

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Clever enough. A bit tawdry. Not unlike “The Hong Kong” near Boston’s Faneuil Hall. And surprisingly, the chattering class seems to be much in agreement.

This afternoon, the consensus of Democrats and Republicans alike was that this election changed the game for Democrat policies and the President’s agenda going forward.To say that there is now a deep skepticism for passing Obamacare in its present form, would be a tremendous understatement.

And while Republicans are mostly ebullient, there are a some cautionary notes in the analysis too- courtesy of HotAir’s Ed Morrissey.

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For starters, there is reelection to think about. Before you groan, consider that Brown faces reelection in 2012 during the same cycle as the Presidential election. High turn out for such a race among Democrats, particularly if Obama continues to falter, could mean trouble on the horizon. At least a part of Brown’s comfortable win can be attributed to voter apathy among Democrats toward Martha Coakley. 

Second, Republicans have no real idea what type of legislator Sen. Brown will be.  Will he be cast in the legislative mold of New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg?  Or will he fall along the lines of former Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Arlen Specter and his ilk?

I would presume the former, seeing as how the latter switched parties, but one thing on this score is clear: Brown’s election proves that the epitaph of the Yankee Republican was written prematurely. The Brown Campaign’s themes of limited government, controlled spending, and complete silence on social issues is nothing if not consistent with the Yankee Republican values of yore. The GOP establishment, and evangelicals would do well to welcome such Republicans back into the fold since these are the types of Republican candidates that tend to win in the Northeast; and the type of candidates that can help build a majority.

Finally, Republicans would be wise to not settle into obstructionism. As HotAir’s Ed Morrissey notes:

Democrats still have an 18-vote majority in the Senate and a House majority of over 70 seats.  They can do a lot of damage in the remainder of the 111th Session, so we have to maintain vigilance and keep up the energy.

We didn’t cross a finish line last night — we crossed the starting line.

The overall goal for the GOP has to be a return to power based upon a principled vision for governance. Given that the Dems no longer have a stranglehold over Senate business, it behooves the minority to craft an alternative agenda, setting up a firm contrast of ideas for voters in 2012.

Simply saying, ‘no’ to the Dems will no longer fly. 

Still, last night’s win was a big win for the GOP. It was very much a validation of recent voting trends in Virginia, and New Jersey. And it was also a stunning rebuke of the misguided Obama Agenda, and his Democrat allies in Congress. 

I suspect 2010 will continue to be a good year to be a Republican.

Kudos Sen. Scott Brown

State Senator Scott Brown pulled off the impossible tonight, defeating the Boston Democrat machine and its candidate for the United States Senate. 

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Yours truly was not among the optimists, but rarely has it felt so good to be wrong on a political prognostication.

Of course, the Democrats will invariably try to tamp down expectations, but it is difficult to perceive the win as anything other than a seismic, political shift, nearly one year from the day on which President Obama took office. 

RIP Taco Bell Founder

Taco Bell has provided sustenance to yours truly each and every time it mattered most -  throughout my college years, throughout my exile in the cold of Massachusetts, and throughout the doldrums of my law school experience.

Were It left to The Pax, today would be a national day of mourning, for it is with great sadness that I note the passing of Mr. Taco Bell.

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That’s right friends, Taco Bell founder, visionary, entrepreneur, saint, and former CEO Glen Bell passed away yesterday at his ranch in bucolic Santa Fe, NM. It could aptly be described as a fitting end for a man with a heart of gold to die in so beautiful a place. 

Mr. Bell leaves behind a legacy that few can question, for rarely has a single person done so much good for so many. 

From Pax Plena to the entire Taco Bell organization, this black bell is for you. And Glen, when you get to heaven (as if you could go any place else), say hello to Gidget for me, and give her my heart-felt, “yo quiero Taco Bell.”

Vikings Destroy Dallas

Well, the Cowboys’ 2009 – 2010 season is in the books. Painful though it is to say, Dallas was absolutely destroyed by the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC’s divisional playoffs. 

The shellacking was enough to making one question the future of head coach Wade Phillips, and the whole lot of Cowboys’ coaches. Of course, this is true after every Cowboys’ loss so consider the source. 

Still, this loss, in particular, had to be more than a bit demoralizing.  Dallas gave up six sacks in its highest stakes game of the season. The rushing game was anemic at best.  And the ‘Boys stellar defense couldn’t muster a turnover on a day that saw aged  Vikings QB Brett Favre throw for four touchdowns, and 234 yards. To top it off, the Vikings even ran up the score, provoking Dallas linebacker Keith Brookings to call the Minnesota hordes ‘classless.’ Which they were (go Saints!).

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I played the cynic toward the end of the season, and all but called for regime change at Valley Ranch this past December. Maybe that assessment wasn’t too far off. But then again, it’s hard to say.  And that’s really what makes this season so disappointing - from the extreme outside looking in it is difficult to see the obvious places to make headway in the off-season. (Alas, The Pax has no ‘insiders’ tucked away in the Cowboys organization).

The fact is, at one point in the season or another, it seemed like all of the pieces were in place for this to be an extra-special team.  In truth, for Dallas, making the playoffs and winning a game was probably indicative of a special season.  But this is Dallas.  You don’t build a $1 Billion stadium, and remain satisfied with a second round exit from the playoffs.

Sure, their offense could use a re-tooling.  I haven’t heard too many people calling the Cowboys’ offensive scheme among the most novel in football. Aside from run-up-the-middle, it was difficult to see what exactly the Cowboys’ offensive aim was this season. But even that seemed more a function of planning, than personnel. Romo was Romo: some weeks he looked brilliant; other weeks (ahem, today), he looked buffoonish. Mile Austin was a tremendous bright-spot for the entire season – except for today when it mattered most. 

The one obvious area needing improvement is the kicking game.  Dallas went through two kickers this season, and both were about as accurate as Dick Cheney on a quail hunt.

So, would a coaching change help?  Perhaps.  When pressed on the matter, Double J had this to say:

Double J’s saying that this game will not ‘impact’ his decision, is kind of like saying that Barack is a great President. It just isn’t true.

And, most importantly, it is a far cry from saying ‘Wade Phillips is safe for another season,’ which he could have easily said.  Suffice it to say, Jones left himself plenty of wiggle room to evaluate the totality of the Cowboys’ season, and conclude that it is, indeed, time for a regime change.

Of course, Double J probably appreciates how receptive Phillips is to the front office’s involvement with the team. Moreover, I’m not as convinced that the Cowboys’ woes are Phillips’s fault. Romo, Jason Garrett, and the Cowboy's’ secondary deserve as much of the blame for this loss as Phillips does – although his defensive squad played notably flat this afternoon. 

But the glaring obstacle to regime change in Dallas is that the biggest-named, unemployed head coach out there was Mike Shanahan who, as luck would have it, is now the head coach of the Cowboys’ rivals, the Washington Redskins.

Bottom line: I’m not sure that Double J has a better alternative than ole’ Bum Phillips’s boy, Wade.

So, for now, it remains to be seen just exactly where the ‘Boys go from here. And, now, Cowboys’ fans have the entire off-season to mull it over…

U.S. Haitian Relief Efforts

As the days go by, and the video from reporters and citizens come pouring in, the sheer magnitude of the Haiti earthquake is hard to fathom.

From a policy perspective it is difficult to imagine how any government could respond effectively to such a crisis, let alone one as objectively dysfunctional as Haiti's government in Port-au-Prince.

In assessing the American response to the crisis, I am obliged to give the President his due. Sending Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to Haiti this morning underscores the U.S. commitment to the relief effort.

And support from the United States such as this, and this strike me as awfully classy things to do.

Some Thoughts on the Mass Senate Race

With Tuesday's special election to replace the late Sen. Ted Kennedy just around the corner (and the Cowboy's game not until tomorrow), I thought it appropriate to add my two cents on the Bay State senate race.

The most astonishing aspect of the Mass election is that it merits comment at all. The conventional wisdom of each and every pundit at the start of the year was that the race would, and should be, a slam dunk for the Dems.

That state senator Scott Brown has made it a race at all speaks to the serious political problem facing the Dems this fall.

To wit, the logic follows that if the Dems can't win a Senate seat in deep, deep, deep blue Massachusetts, where can they win? Add to that a host of centrist Dems opting for retirement and a federal pension, rather than a bruising reelection campaign and flagging popularity, suddenly one starts to smell a political tsunami in the air.

To say the Dems are panicked would be an understatement. A Democrat President shouldn't have to campaign in Massachusetts.

Ever.

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From my own part, having lived in Boston for nearly two years, I just don't see Brown pulling this out. Mass is way too liberal to elect a politician like Brown.

Of course, I lived near Cambridge. And even by liberal standards, Cambridge is far from representative of the entire state.

History also counters that, Mass tends to appreciate the odd fiscal conservative. This is the state that elected Willard "Mitt" Romney after all. And to his credit, Scott Brown has run nearly a perfect campaign, championing economic issues and spending, rather than social issues and defense- clear loser issues in a state like Mass.

Naturally, others have made the case that Brown doesn't need to win in order to paint the Dems as frazzled. And this is mostly true.

The fact is Scott Brown has already exceeded expectations.


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When the White House Takes Umbrage

After a school necessitated hiatus, the Pax is back with a vengeance faithful readers.  Unless you’ve been lounging about the caves of Tora Bora the past 48 hrs, the uproar over televangelist Pat Robertson’s latest gaffe is old-hat by this point. 

That Pat Robertson’s invectives make news at all is, perhaps, even more troubling than the aged minister’s comments.

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Rightly, Pat Robertson’s offensive remarks were strongly condemned by President Obama’s White House in this morning’s presser with White House Spokesperson Robert Gibbs.  In fact, Gibbsy (as he is affectionately called) even managed to rope in talk show host Rush Limbaugh for similarly tangential remarks he made on the Haiti crisis.

Of this foot-in-mouth duo, Gibbs remarked:

"It never ceases to amaze that in times of amazing human suffering somebody says something that could be so utterly stupid," Gibbs said when asked about Robertson's comments. "But it, like clockwork, happens with some regularity."

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Bingo, Mr. Gibbs.  Hate speech of all stripes should be soundly ridiculed for the idiocy that it is, regardless of the quarter from whence it came.  The ‘utterly stupid’ nature of such remarks deserves the condemnation of each and every responsible citizens.

Unless, you’re the Democrats’ Majority Leader…

Given the strong reaction to Robertson and Limbaugh, the White House response was strikingly muted despite similarly offensive comments made by Democrat Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Just last week, the latest political tome quoted the Democrat leader as saying:

[T]hat Obama's presidential candidacy was viable because he is "light skinned" and has no "Negro dialect, unless he wants to."

Surely, such closed-minded, racially offensive comments deserve an equal and opposite reprimand from the White House.  Surely, the Democrat Leader’s remarks are an example of clockwork, utter stupidity that the Press Secretary mentioned? After all, given the Majority Leader’s unique position of public trust, what do the comments accomplish if not setting back race relations in this country for years?

“Harry Reid has no need to apologize to me because I know Harry Reid. I measure people more so on what they do rather than the things they say,” said Obama, in a roundtable with several media outlets, including POLITICO.

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Oh.

So, all in all, volatile comments notwithstanding, the White House response to inane remarks is pretty much business as usual.  If you make outrageous remarks, expect the full brunt of the White House bully pulpit.

Except if you are a political ally making outrageous remarks, then you are as welcomed in the White House fold as Michaele and Tareq Salahi – no questions asked.

Late Night Political Roundup

This week finds me back to the grind, working on my appellate brief for the upcoming NALSA Moot Court competition in Vermillion, SD. After all, who doesn’t enjoy leaving sunny Arizona for the balmy, subarctic climes of the Mount Rushmore State during February?

Naturally, yours truly had no say in this year’s locale, but here’s hoping that I-90 opens up by the time competitors start arriving. 

So, for those with a similar case of the Fridays, here’s a hilarious roundup of some of late night’s comedic vignettes courtesy of Politico. 

The Things that Matter

My readings this morning took me to the obscure hinterlands of Genesis 14 where I became absolutely entranced by an ancient battle that somehow precipitated the capture and rescue of Lot, catapulting Abram into a regional power, and resulting in his initial rise to fame.

What strikes about the story is its lists of ancient kings, battles, and alliances, and the contrast between power and futility. This concept, admittedly, is one that has intrigued many a person. The most famous resolution of the matter comes from Thomas Hobbes, who felt obliged to conclude that life is ‘nasty brutish, and short.’ 

But what sparked my wonderment is the fact that these ancient kings and kingdoms have all passed away, lost in the annals of history. Once these men lorded over the masses. Now, their life and times are recorded in but a few verses from Genesis – a background supplement to the narrative of God’s true protagonist Abram.

The tale also reminds me of the sonnet by Percy Bysshe Shelley, titled Ozymandias:

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

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The point of the sonnet, fatalist though it may be, is simply that all things are destined to run the same course. Ours is a life that rewards only the living, and only for the present moment. Kingdoms, like people, will pass away however great they once were. For most, history will neither record, nor note our existence.

Oswald Chambers suggests a balm of sorts for coping with this reality. He posits living life sacrificially – being open to what ends God calls one to do – as a means for attaining fulfillment. His suggestion is appealing insofar as it ‘loosens the bands that hinder life.’ If one ‘lives for God’, then presumably it is a life that yields eternal dividends, and gets closer to the rub of what things really matter. This interpretation of existence suggests that the aim of life lies not in acquiring actual strength, might, or fame, but in the extent of our willingness to serve God and others.

While I am not sure that Chambers gets it exactly right (one could easily conclude that a life of selfish indulgence is a better route than service by the same logic), my own view of the matter is that faith in this God, and for Christians its attendant salvation through God’s Son, is the only way to cope with the awful futility of Genesis 14, and Shelley’s sonnet. But this is a specific a solution for what is ultimately a very abstract problem.

And the big question still remains.

If even our mightiest works, and conquests ultimately wind up as crumbled statues in the sands of time, then what hope can we have of our much less noteworthy existence ever being more than a grain in so vast a desert?

The Tide Rolls: Alabama Clobbers Texas

Tonight’s BCS National Championship game was a dandy.

Particularly so, since the University of Texas and their puke orange uniforms were pummeled by the Alabama Crimson Tide 37 – 21.

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Anyone who has frequented this blog, knows well my loathing for all things related to the University of Texas. I’d recant how their fight song is “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad” but the canard is getting old by now (though their uniforms actually do resemble puke).

And so, on this auspicious occasion in the new year, yours truly will take the high road tonight. Here’s congratulating Coach Nick Saban, and the University of Alabama on a hard fought win, and their first National title since 1992.

And here’s congratulating the University of Texas on a terrific SECOND place finish in the National Championship game! Second place, after all, is kind of like winning it all.

And boy, old Colt McCoy sure played a heckuva game. Oh wait…

Update: For a moment, I thought I had heard something that was never said. After a quick check of some sports message boards, I find that I am not quite so crazy as ABC’s Brent Musburger.

Musburger had the following to say about a decisive sack by Alabama linebacker Eryk Anders on Texas QB Garrett Gilbert:

Brent Musburger: “He came in there unmolested”

[Moments later]

Brent Musburger: “And Gilbert never felt it.”

Brent Musburger = Priceless.