
 |
|
May 24, 2013
May 22, 2013
John Thorne:
They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman
May 20, 2013
Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
May 13, 2013
Rabbi Nathan Lopes Cardozo: Why the giving of the document that would permanently change the world could only be done in desolation
David G. Savage: Church-state, literally? Supreme Court weighing public school graduation in a church
May 10, 2013
Rabbi Berel Wein: Be all that you should be
May 8, 2013
Peter Ford: Why China is welcoming both Israel's Netanyahu and Palestinians' Abbas
Warren Richey: Obama administration quietly backs out of appeal over new contraceptive mandate
Fred Weir: At Kerry-Putin meeting, US-Russia relations thaw --- a tad
The Kosher Gourmet by Leela Cyd Ross : Almost too pretty to eat, this colorful salad with Sicilian inspiration will tickle the taste buds and delight your visual sensibility
May 6, 2013
May 3, 2013
Kids, kittens the Same? With employee perks at struggling Internet pioneer Yahoo! it's hard to tell
Sandy Kleffman: Artificial kidney offers hope to patients tethered to a dialysis machine
April 29, 2013
Roy Gutman: Poland's new Jewish museum celebrates life, doesn't revisit Holocaust
Mark Clayton: Terrorism in America: Is US missing a chance to learn from failed plots?
Kim Murphy: Boston Bomber's 'Svengali' Revealed
Pete Spotts: Tiny satellites + cellphones = cheaper 'eyes in the sky' for NASA
April 26, 2013
Clifford D. May: Defense in the Age of Jihadist Terrorism
Sharon Palmer, R.D.: How to feel your best -- with plenty of energy, a healthy weight and optimal mental and physical function -- without driving yourself batty
April 24, 2013
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Sept. 9, 2010
/ 29 Elul, 5770
Send in the Clowns
By
Cal Thomas
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
It is important to understand the plot line in the tragedy called Washington politics before one can appreciate the play, or not.
When conservatives hold to their convictions about, say, sound economic policy, liberals in the media and in Congress label them "ideologues." Should they refuse to compromise their position when offered the chance to do so by liberal Democrats, they are then referred to as "fanatics" or in today's preferred pejorative word, "tea baggers."
And all of the drama can be set to the music of "Send in the Clowns" from Stephen Sondheim's "A Little Night Music."
"Isn't it rich?"
When liberal Democrats hold to their views that higher taxes and more government spending are the way to revive an economy, they acquire no negative labeling. In fact, they are no longer referred to as liberals, but as "progressives." Who could be against progress? Which is the point of the word. When their policy fails to produce the announced results, they are not called fanatics, but remain progressives. Liberals who refuse to admit their misplaced faith in Keynsian economics when it doesn't work are like cult members whose misplaced faith has been exposed as bogus. In fact, liberals dig in their heels claiming it isn't that too much has been spent, but too little.
In this game, it's the intent, not the results that count. Feelings trump failure.
"Isn't it bliss? Don't you approve?"
Apparently not, given the latest ABC News-Washington Post poll that shows the president's approval rating at 46 percent and his disapproval rating at 52 percent, the first time he's had a positive deficit.
With unemployment at 9.6 percent and the real figure well into double-digits when one counts those who have stopped looking for work or who have been forced to take early retirement because they cannot find a job, comes the joker-in-chief to try to sell us the same policy when it didn't work the first time around.
"Don't you love farce?"
On Labor Day, President Obama announced yet another stimulus plan consisting of a request to Congress for $50 billion in borrowed money to be spent on more infrastructure. But the president promised in December 2008, shortly after his election, that "shovel-ready" infrastructure projects would lead to an economic recovery: "…the minute we get those investments to the state level, jobs are going to be created."
| FREE SUBSCRIPTION TO INFLUENTIAL NEWSLETTER |
| Every weekday NewsAndOpinion.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". HUNDREDS of columnists and cartoonists regularly appear. Sign up for the daily update. It's free. Just click here. |
|
"I thought that you'd want what I want. Sorry my dear."
In February 2009 the president said infrastructure spending would create 400,000 jobs. The latest unemployment figures show a net job loss last month.
The few jobs that have been created in the construction industry are a boon to labor unions, but when the money runs out the jobs will end. These are not jobs that are created as a result of a robust private economy, but the modern equivalent of Franklin Roosevelt's Work Projects Administration.
"Isn't it rich? Isn't it queer? Losing my timing this late in my career."
With the public outraged over the huge deficit and the multi-trillion dollar (and growing) national debt, those Democrats who vote for another $50 billion in spending will be nailing themselves inside their own coffins in November. Fanatics behave irrationally and with greater intensity when the game appears to have been lost, so maybe they will vote for more spending and failure in a political suicide pact.
The Associated Press provided a useful fact check on whether the many stimulus initiatives lived up to their billing. On Aug. 26, the wire service wrote, "The Obama administration claimed … that $100 billion invested in innovative technologies under the economic stimulus law is 'transforming the American economy' by putting the nation on track for technological breakthroughs in health care, energy and transportation." But the AP concluded the stimulus would likely fall far short of the administration's intended results.
This president has become a fanatic, enabled by the likes of Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. He refuses to budge when his policies clearly are not working.
Cue the music:
"But where are the clowns? Quick, send in the clowns. Don't bother, they're here."
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
| BUY THE BOOK |
| Click HERE to purchase it at a discount. (Sales help fund JWR.). |
|
Cal Thomas Archives JWR contributor Cal Thomas is co-author with Bob Beckel, a liberal Democratic Party strategist, of "Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That is Destroying America". Comment by clicking here.
© 2006, Tribune Media Services, Inc.
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Ben Stein
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
ZeitGeist
Mort Zuckerman

Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
John Cole
J. D. Crowe
Matt Davies
John Deering
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Mallard Fillmore
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Jack Ohman
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Dan Wasserman

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|