There Go 150,000 Jobs!

I’m not entirely sure the president hasn’t reached outside of the scope of his job in setting emission standards – oh, what am I talking about – Obama is the Imperial President; the scope of his job extends to any place he says it does! He can do anything he wants to; (cuz he won) and the press won’t complain. If he wants to come over to your house tomorrow and inspect your pantry shelves to make sure you’re getting enough vitamin C and not too much fat, they’ll be championing him for it. Safety is gonna suffer, but it’s Obama! Yay! Car prices are gonna go up, along with gas prices and taxes but it’s Obama! Yaaaay!

Check out this lede:

Some soccer moms will have to give up hulking SUVs. Carpenters will still haul materials around in pickup trucks, but they will cost more. Nearly everybody else will drive smaller cars, and more of them will run on electricity. The higher mileage and emissions standards set by the Obama administration on Tuesday, which begin to take effect in 2012 and are to be achieved by 2016, will transform the American car and truck fleet.

Now, bear in mind, this is reality we’re talking about, not some theory, not “expert conjecture.” This is reality, and there is not a negative word to be found in the article; the press is in full rah-cheerleader mode, even though there is ample evidence that this move will result in serious job losses.

Quite different from this headline circa 2005 (back when everyone was working): There Go 800,000 Jobs Out the Door.

That story was a theory about what might happen if certain other things happened. It was, in fact, a headline and story meant to talk down the bustling economy of four years ago, when the president was called an “Imperialist” while taking care to work within the law and within the scope of his job.

Pretty interesting. The president who voted “present” more than anything else while in congress, and who has never run so much as a hot-dog stand in terms of real, income-generating business, is taking charge of the auto industry and the banks. He ignores what experienced businessmen and job-creators tell him, punishes the folks who play by the rules, and moves forward with impunity. The “stimulus” is not stimulating. There will be no job-recovery, he announces, for at least another year. The Bush tax-cuts will be allowed to end – an automatic tax-increase across the board. State taxes and fees are ruinous. Cap and Trade will bust our personal banks. And the press?

The press says, “but it’s Obama! Yaaaaaay! He knows everything about everything! Yaaaaay!”

Hell, he’s even a theologian, now. Maybe Fr. Z is right.

The answer to yesterday’s question: Why RULE, silly!

Meanwhile
Finally The End of the “Bush shredded the constitution” charade:

Except for the introduction of euphemisms and a few new ballyhooed but largely meaningless protocols, there is no longer a Bush-did-it argument. The Patriot Act, wiretaps, e-mail intercepts, military tribunals, Predator drone attacks, Iraq, Afghanistan — and now Guantánamo — are officially no longer part of the demonic Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld nexus, but apparently collective legitimate anti-terrorism measures designed to thwart killers, and by agreement, after years of observance, of great utility in keeping us safe the last eight years. …

…we won’t see a brave young liberal senator, Obama-like, barnstorming the Iowa precincts blasting a presidency for trampling our values with the shame of Guantánamo, wiretaps, intercepts, renditions, military tribunals, Predators, Iraq, etc. That motif just dissolved — or rather, it never really existed.

Yes, so much for the “moral imperatives” that fanned so much hoopla and hysteria. Lorie Byrd asks: Do Obama’s reversals mean that Bush was right?

and…Oh, look…Judge says US can hold detainees indefinitely!

There go 150,000 jobs!