Sunday, August 1, 2010

Don't Get Too Excited About the November Elections

Harry Reid and a Blobfish - Reid's the one with the glasses.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is said to be in trouble and may not be re-elected.  Indeed, pundits are predicting the Stupid Party might well break the iron-clad majorities the Evil Party currently holds in both houses. 

I wouldn't get too excited about that.  Congress is almost irrelevant. 

Every President has had executive assistants, and while I understand the use of the term Czar originated under Richard Nixon - for John Love as Energy Czar - it is pretty pointless to debate who had the most czars.  After all, if you want someone else to have more, just call your appointees "special adviser" or something - standard practice is "change the words, not the reality".  Presidents issue Executive Orders all the time, and in general deference to the position, incoming presidents don't usually just cancel existing orders. 

But it goes beyond that.  It really doesn't matter if the Senate won't pass a Crap and Trade bill, the EPA is poised to do it as executive regulation.  In a characteristic moment of "journo-list" buried candor, candidate Obama said "prices would necessarily skyrocket." under his Cap and Trade system.  Since that isn't politically likely to pass, EPA can regulate it and we're all hosed anyway.  Remember, the kinds of CO2 reductions the AGW folks call for are beyond merely draconian; you could take every car off the road and come nowhere near achieving that they want.  There are numbers and sample calculations in my post "Imagine There is Man Made Global Warming"  I concluded with this paragraph I'd like to remind everyone of:

And that's the dirty, stupid little secret.  Imagine there really is manmade global warming.  Use their numbers.  Calculate how much effect you would have on temperatures by virtually destroying everyone and everything you now know or ever have known, and it has no effect at all.
Illegal immigration is among the most contentious issues between us and the Ruling Class.  The last time a "comprehensive immigration reform" bill came up, callers shut down the capital phone systems insisting there be no amnesty.  Don't worry, they'll do it by executive order:  ABC News reports "Obama 'Scheming' on Immigrant Amnesty? " The source document, an internal memo says:
"administrative relief options to… reduce the threat of removal for certain individuals present in the United States without authorization."
"In the absence of comprehensive immigration reform," it reads, "USCIS can extend benefits and/or protections to many individuals and groups by issuing new guidance and regulations."
As usual, they're backing away from this faster than from a turd in the punch bowl.  It's just brain-storming.  Just thinking of ways to address the problem.  Rrriiiight.  In a time when there is almost total blackout of news about the Mexican drug wars and their impact here?  Rrrriiiight. 

These are shining examples of why the approval rating of congress is at 11%, and is dead last in trusted public institutions.  It's also a good example of why we shouldn't get all excited about changing the trash out in Washington.
“Politicians and diapers both need changing regularly and for the same reason.” Mark Twain

2 comments:

  1. I think the Blobfish would do a much better job if elected to fill Harry's seat. It's really obvious by the more intelligent look the Blobfish projects.

    MikeH.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think the Blobfish strikes a more imposing look. Definitely higher character. A more sophisticated deep abyss fish about town.

    ReplyDelete